Random Photos from my Phone

As I don't carry my camera everywhere that I go, I often miss amusing little things that I'd like to preserve for future giggles. On occasion I have my phone with me, and then can take a really crappy image of the thing that is amusing. Here are three of these items:

I know one cat who wouldn't find this to be fun...

Ummm... The big red sign? The sketchy shack it is posted on?

Lady's Choice? Is it really? What's the difference between "sandwich spread" and "tuna spread"?

Moules Frites

To cap a week of generous eating, the Extreme Chef had a gathering for a fabled Quebec feast known as "Moules Frites". We did our best to copy it despite never having actually seen or eaten it before. I contributed the frites.

A little greenery to start things off...

...and olives

the frites, with leek soup instead of salt on them

the green curry moules

crusty garlic bread alongside the chorizo moules

Philly, the executive summary

I took off on a whim to Philly to visit my friend Chewie, the super awesome dinosaur guy I met last summer in Montana, and geek out for a few days. He manages dinosaur hall at the Academy of Natural Sciences and understands the art of sarcasm so much better than anyone else I've ever met.

I was absurdly amused by the wild ass.

I saw "boathouse row", a lovely double entendre, riddled with rowers on the river in everything: singles, doubles, quads, fours, eights, rain.

I ate cheese steak (see below), and got to briefly experience the awesomeness that is Reading Terminal Market for lunch another day.

I saw tourists running up the "Rocky" steps (that lead to the art museum) - I did not feel inclined to partake in this ritual, even though there is a statue of "Rocky" there.

I got to look in the collections (including some very very awesome specimens, and the Thomas Jefferson collection), and work in the prep lab on some of the very bones that I helped to collect and excavate last summer. I also got to meet very cool museum people, including one of the finders of tiktaalik, which was incredibly awesome. I also extensively roamed the exhibits at the museum - it's easy to spend full days in a place like that.

jaw of tiktaalik - check out that palate and all those little teeth!

Philly Cheese Steak

Disgustingly good. More Philly to come soon.... must decide on which photos to share with all of you!

St Patty's Pizza

In "true" Irish style I had some friends over for a St Patty's dinner. On the menu was Irish Cider (note the napkins) served in orange and green glasses, potatoes (in their crispiest form), and green pizza. It was delicious. No one's ever called me a traditionalist.

Cute and Stupid

I was driving around the city today, and just beyond the pumpjacks north of Bake-town I came across the two things in this blog post title.

These little guys are just sooooooooooo cute! And while they are probably stupid, I think that the photo below captures a much better example of stupid.

Yes, that is a great big slump. And those are two million+ dollar homes. And to the right, just out the picture is the Kern River. And all that stuff the homes are built on is poorly consolidated sediment within the K.R. flood plain.

New answers for the wall of FAME (shame)

Midterm exam questions:

Use a simple diagram (flow chart) to illustrate the scientific method.

Answer:

Define epicenter: the gaseous center of the earth

Driving across the fault

I know I've been here a million times before, but it's always great fun bringing someone to Parkfield for their first time. This time I got a photo of me above the fault (on a doomy gloomy rainy day). This was a pretty nice day actually, not weather-wise, I drove a road I'd never driven before and followed the fault trace from the Carrizo Plain all the way up to Parkfield. Awesome slumping action all the way.

The purpose of this trip was actually to plan a new route for my next "short day" field trip for my geology students. They're going to love this. I love turning people into rock nerds. My route is sort of the light blue line on the map below.

Meanwhile I am discovering another thing that my college students managed not to learn at some point before graduating high school: what a flow chart is. Eek.

Long weekend in San Francisco

This weekend, a long weekend, and thus a weekend free of labs and/or field trips (yes, this semester I have Saturday labs) - I escaped the regular routine and went to visit Bird Nerd in San Francisco. Adventures were had, much work was accomplished on the train ride (thank you USA for having a train that take 2 hours LONGER to get somewhere than driving would), and much rest and relaxation was had as well.

This grainy photo, taken on my phone at night, is of the crookedest street ever: Lombard St. It's also up a 45 degree slope or something almost that absurd.

I lusted at the South End Rowing Club. Imagine rowing out towards Alcatraz in the mornings???

More delicious siphon coffee was enjoyed at the Blue Bottle Cafe. Watch the video! NYT crossword was also worked on. A perfect Sunday morning.

Famous offset point on the San Andreas Fault on Point Reyes. This fence was separated in one fell swoop by the massive earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906.

The beach had dead stuff on it. Lots and lots and lots of crabs and crab bits, only one seal. Of all the seals I could have seen, I was most disappointed this one was a carcass. (There was also a dead duck with mysteriously clipped wings and some other kind of dead bird, large, but essentially beyond recognition)

And, naturally, jumping occurred. (Limantour Spit on Point Reyes - cold and overcast, but really pretty much expected for the Pacific Coast in February...)

Friends, listen to my friends!

Oh Happy Day, and it's still Darwin Day at that!

I finally get to listen to Cognitive Dissonance - a radio show broadcast out of Queen's U in Kingston, by two great Kingstonians (not that either of them are actually from Kingston) and friends. I'm so happy that it is now an iTunes recognized podcast! Congrats, and I'm eagerly awaiting more musical insight to make its way towards my ears.

Happy Birthday Dead Darwin!

Well today, Feb 12, is (was) Darwin's birthday - among other very important people such as Lincoln and Hilary - so last Saturday I felt the need to celebrate it. I did this prior to knowing that I'd be suffering the beginning symptoms of the flu. Oh well, it was good anyway.

Extreme Chef was responsible for the legged fish appetizer of course! Yum!

The rest of the feast was ethnically inspired (we could say evolution brought it together) - and included tourtiere, pilaf, mediterranean salad, butternut squash with hazelnuts, carrots (ok - those two are pretty standard foods globally), and for dessert, brownies and crepes!

Try as we might to not do this, discussing politics at work always seems to come up... Note Kiki's level of engagement in this conversation.

Note in this photo: 1) Kiki trying to get attention in his sweater, 2) delicious crepe with yogurt and apple that I am about to eat, 3) how flush I am with fever at the moment (no, not dying, can continue to celebrate!)

The Crepe masters - bringing skills and all the equipment with them wherever they go!

Thanks for celebrating with me friends! And thanks for tolerating the obvious sickness I was trying to hide!

San Francisco Conference Highlight

Despite conference requirements and torrential downpours flooding the streets of S.F. while we were there, I still managed to make three fabulous trips to the Blue Bottle Cafe at 8, 9 and 11 days of being open to the public. Located sneakily at the corner of Mint & Jessie (between Mission and Market @ 5th), this little gem had the ambiance and the coffee to make a 45 minute trip into town for a caffeinated beverage seem not at all ridiculous. You can purchase some of their coffee online as well, which is wonderful - but not at all the same.

This basement-of-Frankenstein looking contraption here is for iced coffee. It takes some 10-11 hours to cold drip through the grounds into the carafes below. I've never tasted iced coffee before WITHOUT sugar. This was amazing.

But the siphon brew is really what I came for. Stupidly I tried to film the process, but held the camera sideways again, and with the poor lighting - it really came out terrible. Below is the NY Times photo of the siphon bar. What happens is more or less this: 1) "bulb" of water is heated over a halogen plate, 2) grounds are put into a cylinder that has a narrow base with a filter and a chain of some sort, 3) when water is hot enough, cylinder of coffee grounds is put on top and stirred while water bubbles its way up the chain into the cylinder through the grounds, 4) a vacuum is created in the bulb, it is removed from the halogen heat, and the vacuum sucks the coffee back down, 5) you drink it and marvel at how distinctly different coffee tastes made this way!

coooooooollllllllllllllllll...

Meow?

Click the photo for details...

headline? really?

Today I heard this on the news:

"LOCAL SLAUGHTERHOUSE ACCUSED OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS"




... really?

Guest Lecture

Below is a screenshot of a presentation that I will be giving at California State University Bakersfield tonight as a guest lecturer... How crazy is that? I love dinosaurs, but be warned that this talk includes not only dinosaurs, but syphilis, blood letting, and Ivan the Terrible. I'm pretty pleased that I managed to make it so diverse in subject areas, and am hoping that the audience has a good sense of humour!!!

More from the Weekend in the Desert!

Driving down a "road" that turned out pretty quickly to no longer be a road, having returned in entirety back to desert.

In the "mine". It was much more tunnel-like than mine-like. But fun anyway. And remarkably warm inside.

A bat and a rat resided in the "mine". The rat didn't stay very still for photos.

The most incredibly preserved cabin - not even visible from the road in, and so far untouched by vandalizing freaks that many windows still had glass in them and there was no grafitti anywhere. Best cabin ever.

bumping along

I wanted to take you on a little ride with me. Don't worry, filming only occurred on stretches of road that were smooth enough for me to handle with one hand!

More driving, if you can stand the poor quality, can be found here:
castle mine 1
castle mine 2
miller spring

jeep hammock

It's about time! I had finished making this project by the end of October last year, but somehow had not photographed it - are you ready world? Here it is!

View of the diagonally hanging hammock from the front.

View from the back - A-ok!

View of my feet from lying inside it.

2007 Holiday Highlights

Kiki investigated the snow - he didn't seem all that excited about it.

This is an antique waffle iron. We used it to cook delicious, delicious waffles.

A brief but fun visit to "SK" was had.

I had made and gave to my mom an impossibly difficult puzzle...

...regardless, we completed it.

Kiki gets a hand knit sweater for xmas from Lulu. He is not as pleased with it as we are.

The allergic one and the allergen have a nap.

Becky and I purchased plane tickets, celebrated, and drew a cover for the journal we intend to team write on our trip to Italy.