A Tribute to Tyler

My college friend, Rachel just had a baby! Tyler is one month old today! Melissa, Meredith and I visited the proud parents, Rachel and Jason, to meet our new "nephew".

Mommy and Baby

Melissa, with a sleeping Tyler

Still sleeping in Mere's arms

Tyler and I had some fun together!

Furuncle

In searching for Christmas presents, I came across this. At first, I thought I just wasn't paying attention....

To read more about boiling (furuncling?) irrigate in a twinkle, go here.

To read what furuncle really means, go here.

Toastess TJK-28W 1500-Watt 1-4/7-Quart-Capacity Cordless Electric Jug Kettle

Key features Toastess TJK-28W

• 1500-watt cordless electric jug kettle chop-chop boils up to 1-4/7 quarts of irrigate
• Automatically shuts turned which time irrigate starts to furuncle or if plugged in piece juiceless
• Concealed stainless-steel warming outlines resists corroding and surmount build-up
• Water-level window; hinged cover snaps parsimonious into localize; stay-cool palm
• Measures 5-1/2 by 9-2/7 by 10-4/5 inches; 2-year modified surety

This uncommon sounding little contrivance is really a cordless jug kettle that boils irrigate faster than a zap oven or a stovetop burner. It apace starts the stewing treat at the stir of a change - it testament regular furuncle as small as ii compotation so it's outstanding on the side of unitary somebody only if. And notwithstanding added refuge, the jug kettle shuts itself sour automatically at the time the irrigate starts to furuncle; it testament too closed itself sour if the kettle is plugged in spell juiceless. The appropriate unsullied nerve warming natural medium resists corroding and surmount buildup. Please observe: Teakettle is cordless, no more than warming proper state requires an electrical exit. Does non sing.

Which Schmuck Should I Choose?

Hi everyone! Confused by the plethora of schmucks running for office? Not sure who to vote for? Go here and let this quiz decide for you!!!

Pick me a Schmuck!

The Boss is Watching

Check out this clever site. Look in the top right corner of the page.

Lastminute.com

More sites need this! :-)

Back to Big Sur

Eric and I love going camping in Big Sur. It's heaven on earth. We took Rosie with us this time. She is an amazing camping partner - great at hiking, snuggly at night in the cold tent and generally very cute to look at. Here are some shots of our most recent trip the weekend of Oct. 20.

California is on Fire

Eric and I went camping over the weekend at Big Sur (more on that in another post). While we were there, we were talking about what it would be like if you went camping and were cut off from the world and when you returned to civilization you discoverd that a major disaster had occurred or something drastic had changed in your life. What would you do? How would it feel?

Unfortunately, we came back to civilization to find out that much of So Cal is on fire. It's so sad to hear the stories of the people who have lost their homes, their animals, their lives. I was brought to tears listening to a single father being interviewed on NPR yesterday. He and his two daughters had to leave in a cop car in the middle of the night. Their departure was so rushed that they were forced to leave their cat, fish and dog. The father didn't know what to do, so he left the front door open, hoping they'd escape. He later learned that his entire apartment complex had burned to the ground. Even worse, the SAME THING happened to him four years ago in the Cedar fire of 2003. I've heard so many people say they will stay there, they will rebuild. I'm not sure what I would do. I hope I never have to make that decision. Luckily, the Zaca Fire did not come near us and we are safe during these fires as well.

Here is a blog written by NY Times reporters that is tracking the fires: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/tracking-the-california-wildfires-ii/

What strikes me the most is the apparent randomness of the destruction.




It breaks my heart.

Stacie and Derek

Our good friends, Stacie and Derek were married on October 6 up in Graeagle, CA. Yeah, I didn't know where that was either. It's a bit northwest of Truckee. The recently fallen snow made it very romantic and also, very cold. 28 degrees at 8:00am Sunday morning reminded me of Rochester - reminded me that I used to think that 28 degrees was relatively warm. Yikes! Eric and I, silly as we are, did not bring jackets. We layered very well, although we ended up looking a bit like Joey on "Friends".

"Could I BE wearing any more clothes?"

Anyway, back to the wedding....

It was wonderfully beautiful. Stacie and Derek looked so happy. I've never anyone smile so much. I think Stacie was even smiling when she told Derek, very sternly, "Don't do it!" when he was threatening to put frosting on her face. Here are some shots from the big day. Eric and I had fun playing with Picasa's awesome editing tools.

Red Sox vs. Wankees

Here's a picture of my uncles Jimmy and Tommy (on the couch) and my father (on the recliner) watching the game last night. Damn Yankees won - the Sox let us down, again. Hopefully they won't break our hearts again today. My Yankee fan husband and coworker, Akil, are going to have a field day if they lose again!!! It's actually quite depressing :-(

Chicken Fingers

Eric's fingers after breading the chicken for dinner. Chicken Fingers!!!

San Francisco

To celebrate two blissful years of marriage, Eric and I spent two blissful days in freezing cold San Francisco. We flew up early, early Saturday morning. I returned early, early Monday morning. Eric stayed on for another night for some work training.

A view of downtown San Fran from the park below the Golden Gate Bridge

This is a video of me going down the Seward Street Slides located in the Castro.



The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.



A fountain in Embarcadero Center across from the Ferry Building.



Betcha didn't know we rent videos for a living!



Happy Anniversary!

Obama at SBCC

Obama came to Santa Barbara City College for a "grassroots rally". Eric and I missed it (up in SF for the weekend - post coming soon!). Around 4,000 people went. Vickie and Oz joined in and said that it was great. He was very well received and everyone who went has told me it was a great experience. I have heard no reports of anyone getting toted off and interrogated by the Secret Service, which is what happened when Clinton (Bill) came on his campaign tour. Yikes!

Nuthin' But an App Thang

Eric's sister Julia's husband, Josh works for Vertical Response. They provide email marketing solutions. They partner with Salesforce and made this video to promote their partnership. Josh is the one with the white shirt and black jacket. Even if you have no idea what they're talking about, it's still a pretty clever song/video.

Zaca Fire

Back on July 4, some ranch workers accidentally started a small brush fire near Zaca Lake. It is still burning today and has now burned over 105,000 acres. For a few days now we've seen a massive plume of smoke rising ominously behind the mountains. We have a great view of it at SBCC. We make sure to take time for "plume viewings" during the day. Here's a photo I snagged from the SB County Fire website (www.sbcfire.com). It's truly awesome.

Woof! I love you!

I can watch this video over and over again. So funny!

How I Plan to Save the World

What are you doing to "save the world"?
What changes are you making in your life lessen your impact on Mother Earth?

Here's three things we've done:

1. Made cloth napkins. Save money, reduce use of paper and plastic. Just toss 'em in the wash with the load you're running already!














2. Built a worm bin from found materials and use it for food waste management. Reduce!


















3. Started a garden. Reduce trips to the farm stand and grocery store. Pesticide free.

Rosie in the Hosie

Rosie loves playing with the spray from the new nozzle we got for the hose.

















What a great way to cool down a black dog on a hot day!
















Jumping high and looking much more ferocious than she is!
















Tracking moving objects is one of Rosie's skills - look at the attention she gives the spray of water above her head.

Worm Bin

Eric and I built a worm bin today. Just one more thing we're doing to save the world ;-) Seriously, though, it is a great way to minimize the amount of food waste we're putting into our trashcans. Eric says he likes to just eat a lot to minimize how much food we throw away, but I thought we could decrease it even more by owning worms. The worms live in the bin and we put our food scraps in there - no dairy or meats, but lots of veggies, bread, etc. They also love paper! We haven't started the bin yet, but I will be picking up some worms from Island Seed and Feed in Goleta on Monday. It's very exciting. I mean, as exciting as worms can get.



Here you can see the bottom bin with its holes for ventilation. The top bin rests in the bottom bin. The worms will live in the top bin until it becomes full. At that point, we will put another small bin on top and the worms will crawl into the new bin through holes in the bottom. We will then harvest all their poo, which is technically called "castings", but poo is much more fun to say. The poo is used for fertilizer.





Here you can see the holes we drilled in the bottom of the top bin.

The lid is a ventilated lid made of two lids attached together. The bottom lid has a hole in the middle. The top lid is attached to the bottom lid with spacers in between to keep them separated a bit. This keeps it dark in the bin, but allows air to circulate.

We decided to make the bins out of some Rubbermaid storage containers that we already had but didn't need. Using these helped us reduce waste by not buying new containers.

Go here to see the plans that we followed. Thanks to the Solid Waste Department of Klickitat County, WA for their slightly confusing, but excellent plans.

Pot Garden Update

We like to call our container garden a "pot garden". It makes me giggle every time. The garden has now been growing for three weeks. The roma and cherry tomatoes are doing very well, still small and green, but looking happy and enjoying the sunshine. The jalapenos are growing like crazy, just as they did last year. The Anaheim chili is having a tough time. Three of the flowers, stem and all, have fallen off. The garden helper at OSH thought maybe I was watering them too much. I will cut back and see what happens. The basil likes its new home on the back porch and the parsley is not sure where to live and is currently residing in the dining room by the back door. Here are some photos.

Bonsai Pepper

Last year, Eric planted some jalapeno peppers and made delicious pickled peppers, carrots and onions. We left the pepper plants in the pot after they stopped producing. Then, the frost (yes, we actually had a frost here in Santa Barbara) came and ruined the plants. But this spring, out of the lower part of the stem, grew some tiny leaves. And, they stayed tiny. And then, two beautiful tiny peppers appeared. And, so far, they are still tiny! I think we unintentionally bonsai-ed our pepper plant! Take a look.

I can barely Contain(er) myself!

After an inspiring conversation with my lovely Santa Barbara girlfriends, I declared to Eric that I wanted to make a garden. Two years ago we tried, in vain, to plant herbs - a hungry bunny (or other creature) had a delicious salad dinner one night and left us with one inch stems. Last year, we had a bountiful crop of jalapeno peppers, but the frost got them (see Bonsai Pepper entry). This year, I decided to try my hand at a more extensive container garden. This morning we went our local nursery and picked up some starters (we'll try seeds next year) - Roma and cherry tomatoes, jalapeno and anaheim chiles (or chillis or chilis depending on where you're from), basil and parsley. Here are some shots:


You'll have to tilt your head - I'm not uploading this again :-)

In the far right picture, from left to right- jalapeno chile, cherry tomato, Roma tomato, basil, dwarf lime tree and behind that are more jalapenos and tomatos. I still have to plant the parsley.

Poncho Silliness

Congrats, Julia!

My sister, Julia graduated from Colgate University on Sunday. With perfect Central New York timing, the rain began exactly at the beginning of the ceremony and ended exactly at the end. We had a blast anyway and are so proud of Julia!!! Smart girl, too - magna cum laude!!!