Arch Cape

The Oregon coast is immensely beautiful. We arrived at SO's friend's beach house at around 6pm and they immediately dashed off to go surfing despite the cloudy chillyish weather.  Not knowing how to swim, let alone surf, I curled up on one of the many comfy chaises under a blanket and started reading the latest Dresden File book: Ghost Story.  (I have to say, this "beach house" was not like any sort of casual summer home I've ever seen.  Not that I've been to so many beach houses, but I was pretty blown away by the place.  I'm certain I will not have a home this lovely as my primary establishment ever.)

For dinner, SO threw together a simple but lovely meal in the remarkable kitchen (pasta not shown) and we accompanied our dinner with several glasses/bottles of wine.  This naturally led to an impromptu dance party in the kitchen until a polite neighbor asked us to be more quiet.  At that point I was already horizontal, first on the carpet, and then on the sofa, half asleep.  Maybe more like 3/4 asleep.

The next day, while SO and PH went to collect breakfast from a nearby bakery, I took a mug of coffee with me on a little walk along the beach.  It was beautiful and quiet and helped to chase my hangover away.  After breakfast, SO and PH went surfing while GS and I went on a hike up Neahkahnie Mountain near Short Sands.  I don't have pictures yet (edit: now I do!) because I managed to forget my camera at home in a fit of idiocy (I was charging the battery and then totally forgot about it), but I will have them soon hopefully.  It was 2.5 miles up the mountain and the same path down; the view from the top was very striking, although I felt a little precarious, clinging up on the rocks.  I've actually always been afraid of heights, even though I appreciate the view.  It was lucky that SO and I happen to wear the same size shoes as she was able to lend me her hiking sandals.  I ended up with a couple of blisters still, but I'm sure I would have ended up with sprained ankles had I attempted the hike in my flip flops.  

After the hike, we joined the others at Short Sands.  GS went to surf and I continued my book, resting on the beach against a log.  We then went back to the house for dinner on the deck before coming back to the city.  The night didn't actually end there though; since it was GS's last day in town, we went to Fez for their 80s and 90s dance night.  I loooooove dancing and don't really do it often enough so I had a huge blast.  The combined effects of drinking, hiking, dancing and then my 9:30am exercise class this morning left me pretty stiff and sore the rest of today though.  Aside from a brief stint in lab, I've been doing some light cleaning and finishing my book.  All in all, a lovely mini-holiday.  I can't wait to return to the coast!

Travels in Israel and a New Perspective on Life

I got back from my conference Saturday night and although I'm woefully jet-lagged (a condition not helped by my crazily affectionate cat), I feel refreshed and renewed. It's funny that I used to think of myself as someone who didn't much care for traveling. This changed in 2010, because I had to do so much of it, and somewhere along the way I realized that I was loving it - the adventure of being in new places, experiencing different cultures and sights and smells. I've decided that going to new places is something I want to keep doing, even if it's just new places in the US and even if it's just by myself. This was the first time that I ever visited a place alone and it was not scary and it was also not lonely. Granted, I was only actually alone for the first and last segments of my trip (and almost everyone in Israel speaks at least a little English, plus the country is quite safe for women) but I think this is something I can do. And I'd rather do it alone than not at all. So I think I will try to plan one trip a year at least and save my pennies for this. Owning a house of my own used to be my major financial goal, but I think traveling might top that now. From this trip too, I found out that I am more of an outdoors person than I thought. I loved hiking in the desert canyon and eating around a fire and running my hands over rough and smooth rocks and scrambling through streams. It makes me wonder what else I might like.

I've also decided to treat the place I'm living (currently Portland) as a city I'm visiting. Because when I live somewhere, I tend not to be terribly adventurous once I find some places I like. I tend to stick to those places and not venture to look at the rest. When I'm visiting a city though, I explore and roam and sample as much as I can and that is something I should be doing here. When I leave Portland, I should know it like the back of my hand. In Tel Aviv, I went to the art museum and had a really grand time. (Actually, my visit coincided with some kind of Israeli art event so I got some free wine and strawberries dipped in yogurt. I may also have wound up in the background of some kind of show, because there was a camera crew wandering around and many trendy arty looking people). I used to go to museums and galleries when I lived in New York, and for some reason I never did this when I lived in Philly. It's ridiculous that it took going to another country to remind me that this is something I enjoy. But now I remember and so next weekend I will take myself to the art museum here for a leisurely afternoon. And once a month I will try a new restaurant. And when it gets warm here again, I will go on hikes, because I am now a person who likes to go on hikes.

I'm not going to do a detailed post of my travels because that will just be too much and too boring, although I kept a diary of sorts for myself. Above are representative images of the three places I visited: Jerusalem, Ein Gedi and Tel Aviv. They were each remarkable in their own ways and I wish I had had more time. Each place had a strong sense of history but to generalize: Tel Aviv was modern, Jerusalem was religion and Ein Gedi was nature. Tel Aviv was a city after my own heart, jumbly and energetic, with a lovely beach and markets and shops. It was a very walkable city and I spent my day walking everywhere.

Visiting the Bunnies (Part II)

To continue the saga:

Monday: before i go into monday, i must rave about the upside down plum cake bunny fashioned on sunday. omg. soooo incredible. she used her CSA plums and even with an accidental 2x amount of butter in the caramel it was one of the yummiest things i've ever had. bon bon! for monday breakfast then, i had the remains of this cake with a cup of coffee and it was another happy morning. while bunny was busy painting the kitchen wall a pretty blue (and while my mom was watching her and making exasperated noises about how much of a bother it all was), i was crouched in the garden planting seeds in egg cartons. assuming they all come up, the bunnies will have chives, chamomile, sage and thyme in addition to the many herbs they are currently growing and seldom eating. for lunch, mommy, bunny and i sped to mitsuwa to purchase sushi making ingredients and other edibles. by the time we raced home and marshalled a lunch together, mr bunny was pale with hunger and barely hanging on. i'm happy to report he revived after some sushi (eel avocado, salmon avocado, yellowtail), miso soup and edamame. all was well. omg, i almost forgot to mention: for lunch my mom contributed some raw sliced onions topped with a dash of soy sauce and some bonito flakes. after politely sampling a nibble i scooted what was left to the far side of my plate. i don't care how good it is supposed to be for me, i'm not eating plain raw onions outside of a sandwich or salad.

i'm not entirely sure what else i did this day...i think i wrote an abstract for my paper and read the $64 tomato. good book but it took me a while to get into it. i think the man is insane, he might have asperger's. if i wasn't reading the $64 tomato, i was probably reading wicked. the first half of the book was excellent and then it kind of fell to pieces. i can't say i was too sympathetic to the adult witch and wasn't too torn up when she dissolved (literally! hee hee). i was also disappointed that we lost track of most of the other characters (so important to the first half of the book!) so completely. ah well. that said, the musical seems really good and i'd be happy to see it sometime.

for dinner, mr bunny's parents kindly took us to ashoka, an indian restaurant beloved by the family. mr bunny's brother and his girlfriend were there as well. bunny and i ordered the lamb vindaloo (yum yum yum), saag paneer (not as good as minar p, but still tasty) and the chicken korma (my mom dislikes spicy foods now for some reason). before this food came out however, i was busy stuffing myself with samosas and bits of bread dipped in chutney. i was seated next to mr bunny's mother - she is a woman who takes nice to new levels, i only hope she didn't come away from dinner thinking i have terrible table manners. what can i say, i have a weakness for indian food and it requires that i have five things in my mouth at all times, for balance.

(to be continued)

Visiting the Bunnies (Part I)

My lack of picture-posting is becoming outrageously bad, but for once this isn't my fault. I brought my camera to California with the best of intentions; however, the first time I whipped it out (admittedly, it was about midway through the trip that I even remembered I had a camera), I discovered the images were streaked and blurred. What is one to do? In my case, I ate my eggs and corn tortillas and black beans pretty contentedly. To sum up the trip:

Friday: finished watching season 2.5 of battlestar galactica and started packing at 3am. did not sleep at all and left for airport at 6am. arrived in california around 10am PST and was picked up by the bunnies. was immediately whisked to eat fish tacos (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) and then took a marathon nap (5 hours). after waking up and shuffling around a bit, went to eat delicious kimchi tofu casserole at korean place and then had some frozen yogurt. a wonderful start to the vacation.

Saturday: as will be my habit throughout this trip, i woke up at 9:30am and wandered downstairs to have a quiet breakfast. breakfast consisted of a cup of irish breakfast tea, an egg scrambled with the last bit of goat cheese and a small CSA apple. eating outside in the garden, i was completely blissful. for lunch, bunny and i roasted some CSA vegetables (blue potatoes, yellow summer squash and carrots) and felt virtuous. that over with, for dinner we dashed off to some mexican place and i had some mighty delicious enchiladas with mole sauce. after dinner, we met up with mr bunny's brother for gelato but i was too full to even contemplate dessert.

Note: i don't know if it was friday or saturday that we stopped by barnes and noble, but that was a trip that changed my life. after the purchase of settlers of catan i was pretty much enslaved by the bunnies every evening until my departure. also bunny bought the first sookie stackhouse book there and we are both addicted to the series now.

Sunday: the athletic bunnies dashed off to their sports of choice (yoga or soccer) and i was left alone to do as i please. at some point my mom called and informed me they were merely half an hour away. with that i threw myself into action and started fixing paninis with pesto, tomato and mozarella. since mr bunny is no fan of the tomato, i sauteed some peppers and onions for his. dinner was a simple affair of bbq chicken and 5 for $1 corn. my mom was scornful of the corn at first but after her first bite, she quietly ate two. if it was up to her, we would have piled into the car immediately after dinner to buy more.

(to be continued)

ASME 2008

This happened ages ago (about two months) and so I'm just going to make a quick list of events:

Tuesday (June 24th): Algy, Ferret and I go to Florida a day early due to accidental booking of plane tickets. We stumbled across a Thai restaurant and had a nice lunch and then stocked up on alcohol. Upon arriving at our hotel (which took a bit longer than expected because Google Maps led us astray), Ferret and I took a nap while Algy called everyone he knew. We had dinner at a seafood place and then went to bed. We stayed in Naples at a charming little hotel that served free breakfast.

Wednesday: Enjoyed the free breakfast and then checked out of hotel and headed toward the summer home belonging to someone Algy knew. The person was not there, but he had arranged for us to get the key and we camped out at the private beach. Algy and Ferret went for a swim while I practiced my talk. For lunch, we went to Kona Grill (some Asian fusion chain) and was stuck there for a bit while it rained. Had lots of food and I had a margarita. Later, we headed toward Marco Island and met up with everyone else. Attended the welcome reception for a little and then Ferret and I went to pick up Pug from the airport. I had my first Wendy's chicken sandwich.

Thursday: Gave my talk in the morning. It went well. :o) The rest of the trip is actually a bit of a blur. I remember hanging out by the beach and wading into the water. The sand was amazingly fine and the water was so still and warm. I remember going out to dinner at another seafood restaurant with another lab and enjoying many crab legs. I also remember going to an Italian restaurant and having a very tasty pasta. Food was generally yummy this trip. I gave another talk on Sunday...and we returned that afternoon.

Ok, here are some pictures:

Good Times in San Francisco

I pretty much destroyed this machine with my bear-like arm strength.

Tortoise (left) and Ferret (right) in an intense boxing match. After three games it was decided that the boxer wearing the white shorts cannot be defeated because he was broken.

Three animals (Ferret, Tortoise, Monkey) with fellow animal friends (fat noisy sea lions in the background).

Home, LA

This list covers the period March 5th through March 12th:

• Dinners were always tasty meals cooked by my mom. She was especially into making eggplant and tofu this trip.
• Seafood Port is always on my list of places to go when I'm home, mostly for their red pork. I forget what the English name for this dish is, but basically it is deep fried pork chops drenched in a sweet red sauce. This time, we paired this dish with some clams cooked with Asian basil, some fish in a black bean sauce, and a plate of tender sauteed greens. The food was perfect.
• Another dish I pine for when I am on the East Coast is the Picante del Mariscos at Pollo Inka. It's a creamy salty seafood dish that is unlike anything else I can think of. If you get this dish during lunch, it comes with a very tasty chicken and rice soup (extra good with a good drench of lime juice). I always make someone take me here at least once when I am home.
• Mommy and I made a lemon cake using Ina Garten's recipe. I was inspired by alpineberry and decided to make this cake using the lemons from our tree. I have no picture, but it was a tasty cake, provided you can stand the tartness.
• We also made a lovely large batch of lemonade that was consumed mostly by me. I wish my family believed in ice but oh well. The recipe for the lemonade is as follows:

Lemonade Delicioso

This makes a pretty sweet lemonade. Reduce the amount of sugar if you want your lemonade less sweet or if you are using Meyer lemons which are naturally sweeter than standard lemons.

In a small saucepan heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water until the sugar is dissolved completely. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice (we ended up adding more juice to taste). Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add around 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Serves 6.

ORS, San Francisco

Here it is laundry-list style and primarily food focused, covering the period of March 1st through March 5th:

ORS + San Francisco

• Seafood pasta at a third rate steak and seafood joint charging first rate prices: pasta was overdone, sauce was unremarkable, but my hunger was vast so I ate the whole thing. The others got different kinds of steaks and found them completely average as well.
  
• Homemade gnocchi with a very tasty gorgonzola sauce in SF's version of Little Italy at a restaurant called Pinnochio's. Tortoise, Ferret and I basically tore through the antipasto platter as well. It got to the point where Tortoise and I were fighting for olives and Ferret had to switch seats so he could attack a different, less-devoured platter. This night set Tortoise and I up for subsequent trashing of a coffee shop the next morning.
• Doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches at Barbary Coast every morning of the conference. This coffee shop was situated across the way from our hotel (the very pleasant Powell Hotel) and provided us with the stamina to last through morning sessions. We drank weak watery coffee for two days before we caught on to the 'Americano.'
  
• Chicken sandwich at a peculiar burger restaurant nestled in an empty carnival-ish place. This sandwich tasted quite average but the presentation made it memorable. It was basically a gigantic piece of chicken (possibly an entire chicken) held in place between two normal-sized buns. Holding this contraption was tricky and consumed a lot of my attention. I think I went through an entire factory's worth of napkins.
  
• In 'n Out is always a must when in California with Ferret. I might not have gone there on my own, but once there, I thoroughly enjoyed my cheeseburger and chocolate shake. In the end, I decided that I prefer McDonald's fries after all. It might not be as fresh but I love that crazy deep-fried outer crunch. Yummy. After eating burgers, Ferret, Tortoise and I were transfixed by the street spray-paint guys. It was a frenetic form of entertainment. Tortoise especially was frequently amazed at how the guy would seem to mess up only to show a second later that the mess up was part of his master plan. It was amazing!
  
• There is a New Delhi in every city and San Francisco was no exception. It is starting to be a tradition that we eat Indian food once at every ORS. This place was just super delicious (pricey but that is no concern when meals are reimbursable, whooo!). We ordered lamb vindaloo, saag paneer, chicken marsala and a sampler of grilled meats and fish and ate until we fell down basically. The samosas we had for an appetizer was also tasty but the other appetizer was just onion rings more or less. And not even crazily delicious onion rings. After one bite I refused to waste valuable stomach real-estate on it. There was a funny moment involving the food bill that I won't get into here, but it was amusing.
• The school lunch was frankly disappointing. I only enjoyed it as an opportunity to ingest some desperately needed greens. As usual, we sat with a certain person. This is becoming another tradition (less pleasant than Indian food).
  
• The last day of the conference was pretty happy times for us three animals. It included the gimmicky clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls (really did not live up to expectations, the clam chowder tasted straight from the can and the bread lacked true sourdough flavor. Ferret and Tortoise really enjoyed using theirs to double as napkins though). We wandered through a Museum of old arcade games at the Wharf and watched the sea lions for a long time. Then we started to walk to Ghirardelli Square only to be side-tracked by a luxurious lawn. After a pleasant 45 minute nap, we continued on our way to the Square and I had a most delicious warm brownie sundae. I can't be at all objective about this b/c my hands were shaking, possibly from low blood sugar, so this sundae was pretty much the most delicious sundae ever. We then deposited Tortoise back at the hotel and Ferret and I made our way to the airport.