07 December 2014

There's home decor. And then there's my place.

In my walks across the Vatican museum in past years, my head is always straining up. Yes, I bump into people and I've certainly been nearly knocked down several times, but then, the ceilings are just absurdly magnificent. That is not to say the Sistine Chapel isn't cool, but it's tough to see that high up. The other ceilings, well. Much closer and just wonderful.

Thus the rather wonderfully crazy conversation I had with my mother on one of the trips when she was with me.

"I'd love to have a ceiling like the ones in the Vatican museum."

"Really?"

"Oh yes! Just wait until you see it." 

"Well, I'll take a look when we're there. I may be able to do that for you."

Yes, that was a real conversation. I believed that she could, but the magnitude of the design overwhelmed me to the point that I couldn't believe it would happen.

Later she confirmed that, yes, she would give it a shot. 

I giggled. Yeah right. I mean, sure. Really? No. It was too much to take in, so I simply didn't. Even while the tiles were stacking up in my library with carvings, tempera paintings on velum, and gold leaf, there was something in my brain that could wrap around the reality of it.

Two years later, people come into my library to lay down on the floor. People knock on my door and say "can I please see your ceiling?" And despite the fact that my introverted nature can rear it's little head, I cannot deny them the insane beauty that now graces my library.


The only shame is that I cannot quite get the whole ceiling in the photo, but the one above shows at least most of half it. Laying on the floor, the overall design starts to slowly sink in ... not only the fact that it's beautiful, but it's on a library ceiling in Asheville, NC instead of some European museum or cathedral. Then you can slow down and start to zero in on the details of the paintings and carvings. The four centre angels are show below, while the general centre of the ceiling is shown at the bottom. 


My constant state right now is one of gratitude.

Thank you mum. *tears*

(Meanwhile ... mum, let's have a wee chat about some installation options for the music room .... :D)

02 November 2014

Happy Wintry Weekend!

I absolutely love winter! Snow is like caffeine on steroids for me :) While cold is not necessarily a massive draw for me, there is an acceptance that snow and cold come together. So why don't I live in Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, etc? I'm really not sure, although if I was going to move to a winter wonderland, I'd prefer moving to Iceland or Scandinavia. Grateful for the two inches of snow given the more southerly location of North Carolina, I sprang into joyous action. Shopping, hair salon, a couple nice drives, and a hike up to a waterfall fill the weekend. The most important purchase were extremely large tea/hot chocolate mugs with adorable animal drawings on them (mine is a rabbit). Sadly, the snow is already gone, but the spirit of winter is left in me as I look forward to many more bracing walks and suppers by the fire.


Dominican Reading (Book Reviews)

As I noted in my blog post before I left for the Dominican, I was pretty excited to get to read non-essential books. You know, FUN books! Now, there are quite a few books that are educational and still fun, and it would seem those were the ones that I got through. My two natural history books were first as I do absolutely adore natural history, then Gaiman's quick fantasy book, followed by a dabble in religion (or NOT in religion as it would seem with that particular book).

While I did happily start my steampunk book, I was sad to find that I wasn't getting into it nearly as quickly as the previous ones. This actually concerned me.

Why didn't I start with the steampunk and fantasy books I had brought? Why do I continually find myself putting off these wonderfully fun imaginative books? Being a learning nerd is just as bad as a gaming or fantasy nerd, so I'll be making a concerted effort to revitalize all areas of nerdom.

Wait.

*sigh*

Anyway!

Here are the reviews of the four lovely books I did finish during many hours on the beach, which, I must say, were frequently interrupted by naps and daydreaming :)

Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers To The Southern Oceans And Their Battle For The Theory Of EvolutionDarwin's Armada: Four Voyagers To The Southern Oceans And Their Battle For The Theory Of Evolution by Iain McCalman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of EvolutionDarwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution by Rebecca Stott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Ocean at the End of the LaneThe Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole WorldBeyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World by Dalai Lama XIV


29 October 2014

The Evils of Halloween

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. Costumes, the colours of orange and black, and bonfires are top reasons that it's special to me. For somebody who find masked balls the absolute best for parties and fundraisers ... then add in the not-so-secret enjoyment I have for supernatural gaming, reading, and movie watching .... well, Halloween is simply the cat's pyjama's.

However, I have discovered a dark evil that will forever be associated with this glorious holiday. It is called ... baking.

I'll be honest. This started when Ellie's teacher assigns "snack day" once a month to each of her kids. Well, kid's parents really. So I would buy a nice large thing of fruit or crackers or whatever. I didn't really care. Then one of the mum's came out with a muffin pan. I'm like, what is that about? I must have said it out loud because Ellie answered me by explaining, that what is becoming clearly in my head as COOL MOM, made muffins together with nameless child that I have no memory of. This irked me. How dare she demonstrate more love and bonding than me? Unfortunately, I have since discovered, through Elle's tactful assistance, than I'm probably the UNCOOLEST mom because it would seem that we are required to go to centers, eat lunch with our kids at the school (seriously?), assist with little kid functions, etc. For anybody who knows me, I'm completely unqualified for these functions.

While I had a good excuse for nearly all the items (traveling, meetings, etc.), I was not-so-secretly relieved. However, the original muffin incident still was under my skin. So, I proposed to Ellie that we finally put to use those amazing 3D Halloween cookie cutters bought oh-so-many years ago at Williams Sonoma. The fact that she expressed concern about the fact that "mommy, I've never seen you make cookies before" and "mommy, you can just buy them, it's ok," merely motivated me to win this non-existent war for COOL MOM.


So! Off to an excellent start. The little Halloween apron in place, the tools in place, everything ready! A few problems occurred. The stupid recipe left out the value of flour when rolling out the dough. Easy enough to fix, but when I cut them out, the stupid recipe also left out the value of flour on BOTH SIDES. Whatever. In a valiant effort to ignore Ellie's head shaking back and forth in amazement at my ignorance, I plunge forward.

Then comes that sugary crap. Keep in mind I've just come from the Dominican Republic, which is apparently capable of only serving very sugary drinks, so I'm totally sugared out for like a decade. Even looking at that much sugar made me feel sick. Vowing to not touch the product of our labours, we add the food colouring, which I might note, was the ONLY very enjoyable part of this process.

Here's where I proudly pull out the Swiss decorating set that I bought in Boulder so long ago in a rare moment of domestic dreams, and subsequently Ellie and I battled who had the best decorated cookie. 


In the end, we had seven excellent specimens, out of MANY MORE that did not make it. The hours taken with this project based on my hourly consulting wage would have funded a European trip.

I told Ellie the following. 

"Enjoy them sweetie. Revel in them. Because this will never, ever happen again."

She agreed.




BTW, the Halloween set of cookie cutters, the beautiful Swiss decorating set, and the Spring butterfly, frog, and bird cookie cutters are in the "get rid of" room.

28 October 2014

Seven Days of Tropics

Look! It's sunrise on the Carribean!

Laying on the beach for many hours.

Having drinks and food delivered to your beach chair.

Reading your heart out.

Sleeping a whole lot.

Playing in the ocean.

The first three days was serious physical catch-up to some rather intense burnout. However, I have discovered that being in the same place for eight days without the action of city life or at least something going on around me that changes is a wee bit too long for me.

After five days, I didn’t really care about drinks anymore, and the food was making my stomach more than a little unhappy. For a person who eats mostly vegetables, olive oil, butter, and ghee, my three options of food was becoming a little annoying, and even those items seemed somehow coated in vegetable oil. Thankfully we focused a lot on discovering local food, and as such, they were wonderful about providing that; otherwise, we would have been stuck with burgers and wings for lunch and steak for dinner. 

After six days, there was some very serious analysis of 2015 plans, reality checks, and re-planning. With that final act, I was ready to ride a pelican to Florida and figure it out from there.

I am truly grateful for this down time as I desperately needed it for mental and physical refreshment. With the non-work beach bum experiment complete, my next experiment for non-work downtime will be focused on something like hiking or fishing for a week.

I never want to see a French fry again though.

Nor sugary drinks. For a system that doesn't experience sugar, my body is very upset with me. ARG!

I WILL take more time for myself to sit and drink tea, read the paper, and do the little happy grounding things though. That value is certainly taken better root as a result of the Carribean week.

23 October 2014

Guest Post

Marian’s Vacation: An Outsider’s Perspective

By Guest Blogger and Occasional Lunatic:  Ellen

Marian’s patented approach to relaxation is exhausting.  Hurrying to the beach.  Hurrying to get food. Hurry so that we can relax!  I’m constantly chasing her around the resort trying to keep up.  It’s actually a wonderful workout.  I have tricked her into participating in several ‘organized group fun’ events, including our sad attempts to learn Spanish and arguing with borderline-racist people from Chicago.  Our attempts at speaking Spanish are hopefully not annoying the lovely staff, who have endured my obsession with learning about local culture and cooking.  In addition to learning how to cook plantains and make a medicinal rum drink, these forays drive Marian nuts, which is an added bonus.  But I know that she is glad that I asked, so expect to see future posts about her cooking plantains.  She also gets mad when I try to make friends with the other guests, but this always ends up being entertaining and we have decided that we are in an Agatha Christie novel (complete with Russians!).  Together, we bravely traversed a giant trench in the ocean to find a stable sandbar from which to body surf waves.  The trench was 6 inches deep and terrifying.  But we are brave.  We are strong.  We are emboldened by alcohol.  Marian has read four books to my half of a completed book.  She pretends that she is not competing with me, but I know better. 

In conclusion, Marian is actually successfully relaxing in a way I never thought possible.  We sit on the beach in the shade all day reading or sleeping. We leave the beach only to get food and drinks.  However, since there are only eight other guests during the down-season, Marian has figured out how to get several staff members to bring us drinks on the beach.  In these moments, she is to me, a god.  

Much love from a perfect beach vacation!!


-Ellen   

20 October 2014

Slowing Down


Slowing Down.

This, my friends, is no easy feat. Despite the fact that I complain about the absurd pace of travel, clients, and studies, the idea of truly slowing down is equally absurd. Having always been a fan of the “work hard, play hard” adage, I was good with a highly active holiday schedule, and challenged to completely unplug from career or research related thinking.

The Dominican Republic has many lessons in store for me.

In my effort to truly unplug and recover from what has been an excessively brutal schedule this year, I am finding that coming in the off-season is essential because staying in the resort is approximate to your private island because. There are 16 people residing in the resort from Russia, Germany, Canada, USA; and suddenly I found myself waiting to see Poirot or Miss Marple be registered. Every person here seems unusual in an interesting way, including the Russian fascinated with the clouds and showing you his many photographs of them. You dare not be rude because everybody knows everybody here. If somebody doesn’t show for dinner, you actually wonder where they may be.

And then there’s the speed, or complete lack thereof. On a personal level, I didn’t know that I could sleep this much. Cranking through two books in two days, I have found that the majority of my time to be on the beach under a thatched covering alternating the experience of sleeping and eating. 

On a resort level, I find the lack of speed hysterically funny. Other than taxi drivers, moving quickly appears to be an abomination. The security guard is typically asleep, and nothing starts on time. Spanish lessons started 35 minutes late this morning, and Salsa dancing simply never happened. It’s not that it was cancelled. It simply didn't occur.

At this lack of speed and with so few people, you start to notice amusing details, such as the terrified gigantic husband who was being forced to ride horses with his wife on the beach. The horse decided that was a good time for a gallop, and the 6’3” 250lb dude is screaming for help. The guide gallops after him, and the locals on the beach roar with laughter.

They are pretty amused with my preference for veg over meat. I carefully explain with kindness that their menus of an assortment of fried meat is not my preference, and if they could just make me some vegetables and rice, that would be great. There is a telephone call, some massive giggling, and then waiting. The phone rings again. More giggling. Some confirmation from me that I do not want meat. He lists out the variety of meat just to be sure I know what it is. More giggling. It paid off though, with a huge dish of beans, fresh veg, avocado, and fruit. Now I am known as the crazy veg person, although they seemed quite pleased with my having their very delicious goat. I also have in my possession the proper local way to fry plantains, thanks to my friend’s endless interview with the trapped bartender of how local’s eat. However, I suspect that any person who keeps pictures of his crab paella is quite pleased to share how locals eat…

Really, none of these little experiences would have occurred in my normal schedule, and in that way, the Dominican Republic has taught me my first lesson, which is that the little experiences and stories are not mundane or stupid. They are frequently amusing and create tenuous little relationships that can last for a few days and have no more obligation except to provide memories.

16 October 2014

No Research!


When you are a doctoral student, "fun" reading is a journal related to your field that isn't a study article. Or perhaps a lighter book that talks about concepts, but doesn't get into the weeds. This is as light as we usually get. However, with this being my quarter of collecting data and my last residency complete, I'm starting to smell freedom in my literary choices. Granted, I still manage to sneak in the occasional historical novel or something relevant to what I'm doing at the time, but frankly, my non-research reading is far too frequent for my typical reading preferences.

Thus, it only seems appropriate to go hide at an all-inclusive resort in the islands ... complete with a stack of wonderfully irrelevant books :) It's possible that I couldn't help myself in taking somewhat relevant books (the last three), but the rest are all deliciously useless. Fantasy, supernatural, and steampunk reading will entertain me for a week, and if I get to it, I may even get to the natural history, religion, and health. Those, however, are not the priority.

Sleeping will be a focus too. Lots of sleeping.

Perhaps beach walking too. I heard that when you're on an island, there's lots of ocean around you, so I may investigate for at least a walk a day :P

03 October 2014

Observations

Attending my last PhD residency here in London, I’m sitting in a great little pub in Notting Hill, smiling to myself, and sometimes giggling over thinking about previous sessions. I don’t typically consider myself as the personality that spends a lot of time processing, but really, this week has been a major processing experience for me. In the past, my mouth is typically waggling quite a bit. This time though, I’ve been very quiet unless called upon, and funnily enough, I’ve probably contributed more in this method than all my mouth waggling residencies. However, falling into those observation strategies that my poor qualitative professor tried so hard to establish in me as habits, I’ve observed quite a bit, especially in the way of dominant ways people handle their stress.

Know-It-All Stress Reaction
All of these generalized classifications are in every major group I’ve experienced, whether in a workplace, conference, or less fun, in airplanes. In an effort to be authentic, this was really me in my first two residencies. I wanted to help everybody with my prowess of the topic area, and be observed as the brilliant one. Thankfully, I think that I’ve finally moved on, although I have to watch for ensuring I don’t swing the pendulum and do the other extreme. I don’t want to be unhelpful, but I don’t particularly volunteer much. After all, there’s many others with the know-it-all affliction already torturing the hapless soul who asked the question. Sometimes they are wrong. Usually their comments are incredibly obvious. Always, always, always….opinions will be shared regardless of request.

Fearful Stress Reaction
This is the funny one. It’s not funny that they are scared, but it’s hilarious how it manifests itself. For example, sitting this morning in a tight little circle of super freaks (hopefully that doesn’t include me, but I suspect we all could be categorized as that), we were indulging in the less than fascinating world of multiple regression. Somewhere in the middle of statistical output, the facilitator suddenly asked, “is this just a refresher for some or is this new enough to demonstrate?” This is where we enter the interesting juxtaposition of pride and fear. Pride says, “oh god, I can’t be there one to be the dummy!” while Fear goes “oh god, please please please stay at this level!” So, me, with a growing need for a pint, speaks up and says “this is so NOT a refresher for me!” *easier breathing around the room … somebody stepped up to demonstrate lack of knowledge* J

This was an especially good example….the facilitator says “I’ll demonstrate the major differences between mediation and moderation” (as variables). As a silent prayer of gratitude goes up, she starts on mediation.

Panicked student goes “that is mediation … not moderation!”

“Yes,” says the patient facilitator, “I’m covering mediation right now.”

Panicked student goes “but what about moderation!”

Patient facilitator explains that she will cover moderation.

Panicked student goes, “so you definitely will cover moderation AFTER mediation?”

“Yes.”

Ha! Hilarious. That is the perpetual and blinding fear that I see in most doctoral students at the higher level residencies.

Stubborn Stress Reaction
Wow. You want a group of insanely stubborn people, it’s the students who are writing their prospectus. They want THEIR study, no matter how infeasible it is. Graduation at some future point is clearly not in their scope and they are on a path to save the world. Granted, I remember those days, but I also remember how short lived it was. However, you do have to listen to get the reality check because residencies is really one of the safest environments to share your fears, concerns, excitement, etc. Thus, people are going to be nice as they provide recommendations that essentially say, “why don’t you re-think that?” It’s really easy to leap into the solution instead of establishing a problem and seeking to prove that problem. This is the classic error of the early days of dissertations. My cohort has an especially stubborn one who thinks that X not only is essentially non-existent in today’s organizations (I can promise you that’s not entirely true), but she wants to create model that every single corporation adheres to on topic X. Deathly pause of quiet occurs as everybody processes the fact that there is zero allowance for difference in values. There has been effort to explore those areas with her, but right now it’s not being heard very much. I suspect that she’s feeling stress defending it and can’t hear right now.


My Change
This is my little self-epiphany thought and something that I’m seeing in other colleagues as well. I actually do care about all of those individuals in each category I represented here. All the best, I think, if they are not really ready to hear the changes they will inevitably have to accept if they wish to finish … and that’s not with a bad attitude. I do wish them the best and hope it will click sooner rather than later. However, I don’t have responsibility to change their minds. I provide my feedback, engage as much as possible, and leave it with them. I used to stress so much if I saw errors, but even in workplace environments, I’ve noticed that I can respect decisions that I disagree with, practice my inward predictions, and observe the outcome. More importantly, I learn from each of those experiences without the emotional charge that can sometimes go with it if you try and stress over controlling scenarios or people. This is a real freedom that I’m starting to very much enjoy.

02 October 2014

English Reading (book reviews)

Really it's about the books being borrowed from a friend in London across past visits, so when I came here for my PhD residency this week, I stuffed them in my backpack for their rightful return on her shelves. She has excellent tastes in books ... although the one was a dud for me. Try as I will, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is not for me and I give up. Dodger was wrapped around Charles Dickens', so you know I already adore it, and then Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman was beyond awesome. Funnily enough, that was the one I was the most uncertain about, but it in fact was hilarious while influential.

So...these three have been returned, and the backpack space is duly getting filled with replacements, only this time purchased ones from my visit to Cambridge today and what I'm sure will be a couple more before I leave London :)







30 September 2014

The Busking Experience

A re-occurring travesty is that one easily takes for granted where they live. This seems a little absurd because I live in Asheville, a beautiful mini-Boulder. Lots of mountain climbing, hiking, and kayaking available ... a huge amount of farm to table restaurants complete with vegan, veg, and gluten free options ... and most importantly, serious music options. Nothing particularly in the way of Broadway shows, operas, or symphony like what I enjoy, but the jazz, electronica, and general alternatives are very globally competitive .... including busking.

While I've been familiar with busking for many years, the attendance of a documentary opening at the Orange Peel was too intriguing for me to burrow in my little hole for yet another evening. Even more special beyond the documentary showing was the live performances of a few frequent buskers, and the attendance of so many buskers. I had no idea that Asheville did not require permits for busking and that it's a self-organized group of individuals who simply make it work. 

Yet more dimensions of Asheville to appreciate....







29 September 2014

Crash, Burn, and Escape

Just as a clue to over-driven, OCD, and perfectionist colleagues out there, it's not worth. Whatever has got you to the point where you start shaking when you open email, get randomly furious with completely innocent communication, and have an incapability to focus for more than three milliseconds (assuming you can normally focus), then you are officially burned out. Crashed. Done. Take a break - it's over until you do.

It's really funny, in retrospect, because when I did snap, several people apologised to me thinking they were the last straw. Really, it wasn't just one thing. It was everything. Something about maintaining two high responsibility roles at one location, several things going on in my consultancy, and collecting the data for my PhD just sent me over the edge. I take great pride in the fact that I acknowledged it, informed my boss and two managers who report to me that I had indeed snapped and needed sleep as well as time with my daughter especially.

Then, after two days of sleep and hanging out with Ellie (including roasting marshmallows in our fireplace with hot chocolate with steamed milk), it was time to even escape Asheville. But nothing as well known as Hilton Head ... it was time to find new territory, such as the Low Country between Charleston and Hilton Head.

While I heard that Beaufort was beautiful, I truly did not expect the mini-New Orleans experience. Founded in 1711, before Charleston or Savannah, this town is the centre piece of true history. A church that survived the Yemasee Wars, Revolutionary War, and Civil War ... a cemetery over 300 years old ... houses that represented a small version of the American District of New Orleans ... and a town centre that had excellent food as well as cute shoppes ... all near the ocean and midst islands everywhere, it was easy to find the town incredibly attractive.  The shopping included a wonderfully unique Lego instruction book for Ellie in the local toy shoppe and a gorgeous vintage Limoges oyster plate. That was actually quite a challenge. After getting rid of a lot of dishes, I felt some guilt over buying another ... but then this was 1) very uncommon dish, 2) a dish that I'd use constantly, and 3) really totally gorgeous! Fine. One of my inner voices thankfully relented so that I could stop rambling around the shoppe muttering to myself, and even more thankfully, the relenting voice was the one fighting the purchase :)


I realised, during this little escape, that Hilton Head ocean waters doesn't do much for me. It's so calm anyway. I far prefer the angrier waters found in the northeast down to Outer Banks. However, something that the area does provide in abundance is wildlife. Pickney Island nestled on the inland between Hilton Head and the Low Country is a gorgeous walking experience for tonnes of bird life especially. This particular snap is a favourite of mine (it took about 10 in a row to get this good one).






...and what ocean experience does not include the most amazing food on the planet? Well, one of the most amazing foods at least. The local Bluepoints are really quite good - very mellow with a slightly crisp finish. Add some horseradish with a touch of ketchup, and it can get out of control. My only problem is that fresh local oysters ruins me for anything less. However, it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make on a regular basis.


Garden Love

There are times when I question why we bought a rather large home and rather large yard with, well, rather large responsibilities for maintaining them! Combined with two neighbors who also maintains gardens, then you start seeing some very nice benefits to the established home life. Not that our lives are particularly established, but we can at least pretend to be in certain areas :) This beautiful scene can be attributed nearly 100% to garden activity, with the lemons and onions being the only exception. While Eric raged about there being only four tomato plants, we are now overwhelmed with them ... tomato and mozzarella ... tomato sauce ... fried tomatoes ... roasted tomatoes ... how many ways are there to cook with tomatoes? We're finding out. But really, the apple, or in this case, apples, of my eye are my lovely eggplant and butternut squash. Sadly Mr. Butternut is the only one of his vines to make it but I'm happy to report that despite the perfection of Mr. Eggplant, still more are coming on the vine. He has already contributed nicely to the dinner table with a veg lasagna. Mr. Butternut's final destination is yet to be completely determined, however likely my amazing squash soup. I love fresh garden veg!




Power Machines and Flowers

There is a weird dichotomy in my soul to love a tiny crocus and while also adoring the force behind large motors! In this case, they go well together as I decided that I couldn't handle another computer driven task and to own the refurbishment of my front yard. There's nothing quite so invigorating as to actually perform a physical task. Well, in this case the limits of my physical tasks was to draw some yard designs, dream a little, and phoned a landscaper to wipe out the current bushes for a clean slate. 


What I did not expect was that I had quite that much forestry as their large cart became stacked! Now there's literally nothing in my front yard, but I anticipate beauty by Spring with tulip and daffodil bulbs planted, a bit more landscaping planned, and Summer Snow ordered to start replacing the grass. My beautiful fat holly bushes already schedule for delivery and planting next week. My winter of watching birds should be excellent!

08 September 2014

Curiousity

Magazines are awesome! There is a unique excitement about going to a fun bookstore that stocks funky magazines and browsing them for a new find. A couple have hooked me completely. MISC (Movement, Intuition, Style, Complexity) is one that that keeps very happy on airplanes, lost in the worlds and perspectives that it continually gives me. In fact, I started subscribing to it ... another subscription worthy magazine is the Cake & Whiskey: The Sweet & Spiritual World of Business. I was hooked with the inaugural issue back in August 2013 while attending a summit for entrepreneurial women in Seattle. There are many other amazing magazines that I buy now and then, such as AFAR Travel Magazine and Orion Magazine, and then I often browse the Wall Street Journal Magazine that comes with my subscription to the newspaper.

However, I can always count on MISC and Cake & Whiskey to surprise me... they really give me the "oh my" thought and send my brain hurtling to another night of thoughtful sleeplessness that positively impacts me as a human, woman, and career person! In Cake & Whiskey's most recent issue (No 6), the Curious Creatures article nailed me. The context is that curiosity is essential, as it "plugs you into the awe of everyday life". This is a bit annoying to a person who has about zero curiosity in other people unless it suits her. The article even had the gall to quote a scholarly study from 2002 where the University of Buffalo found "the degree to which people are curious actively influences their personal growth opportunities and the level of intimacy that develops when they meet someone new."

Whatever. Obviously I'm the exception.

Moving quickly through this annoying article so that I can get to the funding resources article for women entrepreneurs, which suddenly seemed very interesting.

Oh, wait. Another killer statement. 

..."When curiosity is a guiding force in your life, amazing things happen. New friends, novel opportunities, big ideas. Be patient and persistent. The person sitting next to you on the plan might be the catalyst for your next big career move, but you'll never know unless you start asking."

Of COURSE I just had to be sitting on a stupid plane. 

Did I mention my lack of curiosity? An older lady, probably a bit boring, doesn't have a clue about what I did if she asked (nobody seems understand my job anyway), off to see her cute little grandkids in some god forsaken part of Montana.

Right?

I don't know if I was more bothered that 1) I was getting curious, or 2) it was bothering me that I was realising how nervous I was about broaching any conversation with a pure stranger on an airplane. After all, the millisecond anybody nods towards me, the ear plugs are activated.

Finally, after several minutes of struggling, I decided that the best option would be to simply not shut her down if she wanted to talk. Honestly, I have no memory of starting the conversation, but I would like to state for the record that I could not have been more pathetically wrong with my stereotype.

It emerged that a woman who looked to be in her lower 60s (was 73) was "popping off" to Paris to hang out with her girlfriend in their annual adventure. Wow. Did my grandkid visit concept ever get killed. Paris? Really? "Do you go often?" The response was "oh yes, for the last 50 years every year since we graduated college!" Following was a short explanation that life is meant to live, not just fritter away stressed out over details that won't matter anyway. I would like to add that I've never met a 73 year old individual who was so absolutely with it on modern times, offering real insights and perspective to my own future.

Thank you Cake & Whiskey. While I don't see myself plunging into discussions with strangers very often, I certainly won't resent the opportunities.

The Mini Love Affair

When agonized over finding the best fit of vehicle for my personality in 2009, it was with immense pride and love that I pulled Habanero out of the dealershipshowroom in February. Ticketed merely weeks later for speeding down a Virginia highway to my first PhD residency, Habanero had a great head start to the 150,000 mile journey for the next five years. She was our mainstay in Denver for almost two years, and later in Scottsdale for almost a year. Having literally traveled from California to Cape Cod, Canada to Florida, and so much between including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah … well, you get the picture.



One of Habanero’s most adventurous acts has to be slogging through several feet of snow to St. Elmo’s, a ghost town in Colorado that I was possibly a little over determined to do. Locals were a bit … dubious, but thanks to possibly a couple of tows, we survived, and we got to see ghost town in the most beautiful condition of nature: winter.




The other rather foolish but absolutely required adventurous act would be the beach on the farthest northern tip of the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Completely impervious to the recommendations of AWD vehicles, we went gaily along, until of course we hit a soft spot, and the real adventure truly started.

There are so many adventures to remember across the domestic USA. I dreamed of shipping her to Iceland for the Ring Road, and driving up to Alaska for a two month foray, but a certain long legged little girl said enough was enough. Turns out that she was getting really offended be forced into an eggplant position for hours at a time. My husband was just as crabby, and since Habanero was up for the multiple thousand dollar update for simply having that many miles on it, the timing was working out for the upgrade.

Sitting there in the car park in Charlotte, I had a flood of emotions overwhelm, which included screaming “I’m sorry Habanero!!! I can’t believe I even considered betraying you!!!” Then possibly running towards it, weeping, and throwing myself across her bonnet.

Hrm. Maybe not. A proper blog memorial will suffice.

Enter Peppercorn. Ellie leg approval has been reached. Eric’s need for electronic packages sated. Marian’s AWD and awesome engine expectations met. Finally a car that the whole family can agree on, thus I see a bright and long future together….with ownership only for 10 days and 3,000 km already clocked, Peppercorn is well on the path towards her own adventures to come J



08 August 2014

Clothes and New York! (book reviews)

One of my little joys in life is the improvement of my closet, not to mention the fashion honing of a certain little seven year old of whom I can only pray decides to girlify at some point. With gentle coaching and exposure to the finer things, I was full of pride as we sorted through the Manhattan tween boutiques in Soho and Midtown. No, she's not a tween, but yes, she's very tall and skinny, so tween boutique here we are. However, that is certainly not to limit my own quick flits in the designer consignment and boutiques ... complete with some amazing professional blazers for a busy Fall season. While I didn't get to any vintage shoppes, the basic design concepts combined with the "essentials" that Parisian Chic recommended really informed my decisions leaving me with some lovely investments :)

The Little Guide to Vintage ShoppingThe Little Guide to Vintage Shopping by Melody Fortier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews


In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (book reivew)

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (Lords of Creation, #2)In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

20 July 2014

More African Vegan Food (stop rolling your eyes!)

"Hello, my name is Snicks, and I have a problem."

A problem indeed. Who knew that I could enjoy vegan food this much? This particular Sunday had plenty of work I had to do, but it was nicely sprinkled with preparing this meal and indulging in understanding the history of fashion, possibly sparking a whole new wardrobe make-over. Because, well, why not. One would think I don't have time to deal with this, and I don't. That is the beauty of taking the time to do it. More on wardrobe and fashion later, specifically when I'm in New York City next month :)

Next week is a work travel week, and while I know there will be plenty of enjoyable food that I'm looking forward to, my cooking days are over until at least a week from today; so I wanted to spend some time again with it today.

First off, the drinks in Bryan Terry's book Afro-Vegan are simply insane. They are so delicious. Two posts ago you can read about the Gunpowder Lemonade, which I made again this morning for extra wonderful drinking options. Tonight's drink is the Roselle Rooibus, which is essentially rooibus with a crap tonne of dried hibiscus flowers and pineapple. Smooth with the joy of complexity without sweetness, it's easy to accidentally chug way too much.

The salad, well, a tad bit disappointing. It was delicious, but not something I'll likely repeat. Not a citrus salad freak anyway, the sugared pecans (that I made) just sent it right over the edge on sweetness. The salad dressing (also homemade) was delicious with cilantro, orange juice, pecans, and spices, but combining the citrus and sweetness simply didn't match my palate.




This certainly did hit my palate in a very positive way though! Tagines are a North African dish well known for it's earthenware pots for stews, so I'm not sure you could technically call it a tagine since my was made in a copper pot. All the same, it was delicious with saffron, ginger, cinnamon, and cilantro being the front running spices with these slow cooked sweet potatoes. The shortbread was really driven by cornmeal, pecans, sesame seeds, coriander, and cumin, which all of of those spices were toasted and made into a "Dukkah" combination for future use as well. Homemade creamed cashews and my own almond milk certainly made this particular recipe more complex, but quite delicious and extremely unique.


The only real hit to the pocketbook when cooking African food is their obsession for saffron; otherwise, shockingly reasonable. The only real difference is that you're simply shopping for slightly different things than what I perceive an American purchasing. For example, dairy is fast disappearing in the house, being replaced with the variety of milks and teas with a complete absence of butter. Coconut oil is used as commonly as olive oil, and my spices have nearly doubled (space expansion underway).

Don't worry, this won't turn into a food blog. Just a "what am I getting distracted with now" blog ... as usual :)

Spots of the Old World

Right now I'm in an absurdly "missing" mode for Malta. We limit our visits to every five years since our honeymoon because we love it SO much. There's a couple weird things about this. Firstly, there's only a huge amount of other Old World cities we can indulge in to our heart's content. Secondly, well, that's the whole point. It's special, and this keeps it special. There are trips that one looks forward to more than others, but as our worldview sometimes slips into more jaded perspectives with the increasing travel we are fortunate to have, Malta will never fall prey to that.

Why this soppy nostalgia? Because I've found that no matter where I'm at, there are those quick glimpses into the views that we so dearly love in architecture or that represent a culture that we enjoy. For example, where is this photo?


The architecture can certainly be built anywhere, but it really reminds me of the alleys all through Paris full of little bistros. Barely able to fit through some of these "streets" myself, I'm always astonished to see the occasional vehicle make the attempt. This such alleyway, found in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, is set up similarly where the presence of tables are the only clue that it's not meant for very small cars to slip in off the street and into the courtyard attached.


This quick leap into a different world surprised me as I was walking through downtown Mansfield, Ohio. In reality, I supposed it does represent exactly what it is, a very early nineteenth century town that became a major manufacturing feeder for the many railroad lines. However, it's easy to forget that unless you in the bubble of old town centre, and this particular street threw me back to some memories of very old Boston especially. While Boston is technically New World, it certainly hummed simultaneously along with the Old World, and I will always love rambling along it's old streets that stem from the mid-1600s. 

My lesson, to myself at least, is that it's foolish to think there's only one location that can hold special memories. They are everywhere around us. We just have to notice them.

16 July 2014

My African Vegan Discoveries

Before Sunday, I had not really contemplated the idea of African food as cooking approach, let alone African vegan food. Actually, it's "farm-fresh African, Caribbean, and southern flavors remixed" according to Bryant Terry, the author of Afro-Vegan. So we're moving from the realm of complex to the edge of chaotic in my mind! However, it's an incredibly empowering book for those who are lactose sensitive (as Bryant noted that most African-Americans are as well) and vegetarian, or in this particular world, vegan. 

Personally, I don't think vegan is ever a level of eating needed, at least for me. Vegetarian is a habit I started forming in January this year, but that doesn't block the occasional meat indulgence. It just have to be something special and extra enjoyable. I've noticed that my own tolerance for meat has declined in general as even a 6oz filet mignon at a famous steakhouse in New York City left me feeling pretty ... blumpy. It's not an intolerance, or even illness though. Just a preference to feel how I feel when not eating meat. 

So, what's so empowering about this book? It has the recipes for spices and sauces that you can make in advance. You can make a lot of different vegan milks that are, by the way, absurdly delicious. Snacks that are both delicious and good for you? Yes, they are in this book! And finally, any book that gives me an easy process for making vegan ice cream is a completely winner :)


This wonderful iced tea is technically a lemonade, but not like any American lemonade with sugar added. Starting off with gunpowder green tea, you steep in a somewhat complicated way, add a bunch of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and then add peppermint syrup (that I also made). Absurd. Ridiculous. A daily ritual now, with the perfect serving bottle.



Teff biscuits, my friends, are certainly different. Obviously with no yeast, butter, milk, etc., the texture is quite different than ones I grew up eating. Much flatter and very soft, it has it's appeal, although there were some unrepeatable words screamed during the kneading. That, possibly, is more related to my fury that dough got on my nails though. Coconut oil in place of butter and sweetened almond milk that I made in place of dairy milk really tasted quite delicious. Add the fig preserve that I also made, and it was divine. I just need to figure out how to not get my fingers messed up. I am NOT a baker.




This, THIS, is seriously awesome. Despite not being exactly a fan of meat, tofu is certainly not on my priority list either. The term "mustard greens" was pretty suspicious to me as well. Being from the north, Okra, Kale, Mustard Greens, and Swiss Chard are those "weird things that southerners eat for breakfast or something" (and they are welcome to them!). However, I was open minded for at least this day. Just imagine these spices put together to make a curry: mustard seeds, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, chili powder, and ginger. And yes, I toasted the cumin seeds and cardamom pods myself, delegating the crushing process to the nearest victim in the kitchen. 

Next time....a double batch.



One of the things that made the curry even better was the green harissa that I made, also sourced from mustard greens. The spices of coriander, cumin, lots of jalapeno, smoked paprika, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and certain green herbs made this almost an universally usable relish. Put it with your scrambled eggs, fresh trout, or poppadoms, it's awesome. The walnuts, you ask? Just a little addictive snack that is glazed with molasses. 



Ladies and gentlemen, this deserves some careful breathing. You may want to take a break from the ambrosia you've been reading in order to re-charge for the finale. Nutmeg, vanilla bean, raw cane sugar, coconut milk and cashews make a delightful vanilla spice vegan ice cream, so when you add your own date-sweetened almond milk with a touch of Nassau distilled rum that doesn't export out of the Bahamas, and well, you have a sincerely fabulous shake that can only be justified through taste.

Keep tuned for more African vegan discovery meals!