The final rundown

Here is the final rundown of the things that I made and sent off in the month of December.

baklava: a combo of this and this recipe, made with pecans
pistachio butterballs (like mexican wedding cookies with pistachios; from Dede Wilson's Unforgettable desserts)
salted caramel pistachio and pepita brittle
chocolate chocolate mint cookies (adapted from this)
cacao nib and caramelized almond biscotti (Also from Dede Wilson)
seven layer cookies
ma'amouls
cherry and pistachio nougat (from Craft of Baking)
chinese 5 spice cookies
penuche fudge (to which I added a layer of chocolate)
bacon fat doggie treats
pomegranate molasses cookies (adapted from molasses cookies)
rosemary walnut brown butter shortbread
matcha shortbread (Dede Wilson)
rugelach (dorie greenspan)
white chocolate walnut eggnog fudge

All in all I sent out about 10 packages filled with various of the treats above.  Many of these recipes I'd make again.

When I look at all of these recipes, I have to wonder what the hell else I do with my life?  For a while I'm on a baking moratorium.  I'm a bit tired of it, and I'm doing so much lab work (so much rain - no climbing outside!) that it's less appealing.  Plus Sunshine gave me her CSA box so now I'm focusing on cooking the veggies.  I made cream of mushroom soup with the chanterelle I found, and red endive, bacon and fontina pasta with some red endive from the CSA box and parsley from the garden.

A billion people are going to Bishop for New Year's, but I'm a bit turned off given that all of the granite boulders will be covered in snow. I'm cranking through a ton of labwork, so maybe I'll just stay that course. Then I won't feel bad about going to Europe.

I visited both Ethan and James last Sunday.  I got to climb with Ethan at MC, which is always a treat, given that he is bar-none the best climber I've ever climbed with.  Plus he has an easy confidence about his ability rather than a grandiose it's-no-big-deal attitude I've witnessed in good climbers before. Then we went to this kick-ass Mexican restaurant called El Metate and I got some amazing fish tacos. Damn I'm so jealous of people who live in SF. The restaurants in Davis suck.

On the way home from SF I stopped in Berkeley to see James.  We had a date, where we went to Walgreen's and then ate dessert in the Berkeley Bowl parking lot. I think it would be fair to call it a dessert sesh, except I just watched him eat the things I made and got his comments on them. I'm always trying to improve.

Finally, I've been reading a bunch lately. I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Definitely recommended. I also recently read Alex and Me, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Cleft, and How to Talk to a Widower.  Most of what I read anymore was given to me - often nice easy-read books.

Oh right - I saw Tron last night with Bjorn and Mark. I'd give it a big fat "meh". Though the Daft Punk music and cameo was pretty sweet. CGI Jeff Bridges is totally creepy.

Mendo mushrooms

Above is the view of the ranch from Grandma's house.  The lens my camera won't completely retract at this point. I like to think of it as an asymmetrical vignette.  Anyway, here are the details from the mushroom hike at the ranch:

Delicious milk caps (Lactarius deliciosus) - These are fairly common. Supposedly they are edible but I've never tried them. They bruise green which is a bit of a turnoff:

Cowboy handkerchief (Hygrophorus eburneus) - these guys were all over the place. The are SO slimy (hence the name). Mykoweb says: "Edible, but too slimy to be of culinary value."

Yellow staining milk caps - I found a ton of these all under oaks and madrones. Boring.

Blewits (Lepista nuda) - These are common in Davis too. I found these growing out of a cow turd:

California giant chanterelle (Cantharellus californicus) - Uncle Alec found this impressive specimen.  I might try to eat it. It's pretty big! YUM!

Western Jack-o-lantern (Omphalotus olivascens) - poisonous, glows in the dark, and very impressive! Bay Area Mycological Society has a funny description of the poisons: " The toxins, similar to muscarine, present in a mistaken meal of Omphalotus may produce hallucinations (a plus for some), but will also open you, prodigiously, at both ends, for a not so fun time with fungus."

Bitter Brown leucopaxillus (Leucopaxillus gentianeus). This is an inedible, classic-looking mushroom:

Amanita ssp. - not sure what this is either, but it's very likely that it is poisonous:

Witches butter (Tremella aurantia) - This stuff is pretty cool. It looks a lot like snot stuck to dead tree branches. It parasitizes another fungus, the wood rotter, False turkey tail (Stereum hirsutum).

Pine spike (Chroogomphus rutilus, or C. vinicolor - I think). I've found a bunch of these in the Berkeley hills and in an area south of Santa Cruz.  They are edible and I've eaten them.

Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), or false turkey tail (Stereum hirsutum). These are edible, but they don't taste like much. I think some people chew on them like gum:

Fried chicken mushroom? These are supposed to be found in disturbed areas, but I found them on a rotting stump, which I guess could be considered disturbed.  Anyway, I took a picture:

Here are two more I'm uncertain about:

Finally, the Madrone trees are AMAZING this year. I have never ever seen them so covered in red berries.  Glorious.

Christmas with the fam at the ranch

Sigh. Another Christmas at the ranch with many relatives I have nothing in common with. I suppose that's typical. They all asked me if I lift weights.  One woman asked me if I was going to be a doctor, and I was like "yeah, but not a medical doctor" and she started to go on and on about some celebrity doctor guy, and asking "have you heard of him?"  I'm like "no, but I'm not going to be a medical doctor." She's like "oh but he's a chiropractor...blah blah blah".  I just listened - what was I going to say?

Dinner wasn't that fun...

My uncle (the one who writes letters to the newspaper about how global warming is a conspiracy) asked me how I KNOW that the Sierra Nevada lakes were historically fishless.  Put on the spot like that, I'm like "I just know..." and he's like "HAhahaHAhah".  I was thinking about it later and I could come up with a ton of evidence (fossil record, geology and hydrology, native american historical records, the fact that stocked fish do not produce a viable population in the long-term, frogs and other insects that were once everywhere cannot survive in the presence of trout, etc.), but putting me on the spot like that, and asking me a question that I liken to "how do you KNOW the world is round" I came up empty handed. If I were writing it in a paper I think it would be classified as "common knowledge" and not need a citation. This is good practice for...talking to people who are...ignorant? In the moment though, it totally frosts my cookies.  I can appreciate an honest question, but not ones that seem specifically designed to elicit condescending laughter for the benefit of the asker.

Glory glory hallelujah, praise baby jesus that my dad has this little Verizon portable wireless thingie so I can connect to the internet. I know it's sad that without the interwebs I'm completely bored, but to be fair it is dumping rain outside, so cut me some slack. I did bring my rain pants and rain shell though, so maybe I'll walk around in the mud and cow shit later. I hope his Verizon thingie doesn't charge by the minute...

Fortunately it did not dump rain yesterday afternoon, so I had some time to find a bunch of mushrooms.  Pictures will be coming.

I might go visit Ethan in SF tomorrow on the way home. If I'm not going to climb at Jailhouse Monday or Tuesday, I may as well get a good workout at MC. Plus I haven't seen him since before he went to China. Should be fun to hang out and hear about the trip.  I'm looking at plane tickets for Europe right now...I'd like to meet up with people for a month or so in the Spring. Maybe even 6 weeks! If not, I'll take another trip. I'd really like to go to Greece.

The clock just struck 10. My grandma (and my aunts and uncles) all have this clock on the wall that pipes a song on the hour, every hour.  And yay! There's a Christmas setting!  I don't think that I would like knowing when each hour of my life passes while I'm sitting in my house.  Kind of grim.

So, now just an interminable afternoon of looking outside at the rain, a dinner, more present opening (always awkward), and then I'm bailing tomorrow.

By the way, this is for James. Enjoy your Chinese turkey!

Merry Christmas and stuff to everyone!

Things I've been thinking about

I keep turning things over in my head that I've been meaning to write about, so before I forget I'll just go ahead and jot them down:

1) the beauty of the rant.  Ranting is awesome.  I love to rant.  I also love to hear other people rant (of course, when it's violent and/or hateful, that's no fun), especially if it's a passionate funny rant. This guy at Jailhouse named Craig is a world-class ranter - he gets so passionate about it.  Whenever I start to hear him rant I try to get closer so I can listen to the rant. Fortunately whenever he's at the crag I can always count on one or two juicy rants.  It's good.

2) You can look at the behavior of individual people the way you can observe animal behavior.  There are patterns - you can observe risk, reward, and past behavior and make damn good predictions.  However I'm never surprised when I'm surprised.

3) baking.  I've sent a crap-load of cookies out this year.  It's fun to get feedback. People love getting stuff in the mail!  I like to think that I brightened someone's day. Plus I've gotten to try a bunch of new recipes, many of which are quite good...some of which I wouldn't make again.

4) I get so excited when I get a batch of sequences back from Davis sequencing that I drop everything and run to the lab to have a look at them.  It's awesome!  You get a ton of data at once, and you know what you are going to have to do next. At this point it's looking like I'll be learning some new techniques for getting sequence data.  Kind of cool and kind of annoying.

5) I'm worried that I might get scooped by the guy I'm trying to scoop for the project I'm collecting data for (see 4). He has the title of a paper and "in revision" on his website...hmmm...I already told my advisor that I feel bad for spending so much money (a couple thousand already...and I haven't even collected a fraction of the data), but he said he didn't care.

6) my parents are coming.  My mom sent me an email where she laid out ever detail of their visit and exactly what I'll be doing as well.  Lauren and John say that this is what old people do.  Plan shit.

7) Surprisingly, I've been going out a lot lately.  Thursday was happy hour for Bjorn's birthday, Friday was Jailhouse, Friday night was a Japanese fry party at Lisa and Bjorn's house (lots of panko), Saturday was lots of lab work, Sunday was a gym session with Jake and dinner at Lauren and John's.  Winter is good for that.

Ugh. rain.

Day 3 of interminable rain. Going stir crazy. Went to the gym today...

Stuff. Blah blah blah, then more stuff.

No end to the rain in the 10 day forecast.

Why James is awesome.

It's raining here, so I'm lab-bound and gym-bound for a while. Add this to the many hours of darkness every day and you get a more angst-y version of me.  Scary thought, no?

I was talking with my friend James today about trying hard.  Six years ago today he fell while free-soloing in Joshua Tree.

James climbs a lot.  He aspires to do things that are very hard for him, and he gets them done. James isn't the most physically talented rock climber (most of us aren't talented - it's rare to be truly talented I think, so I don't feel like this is insulting), but he still accomplishes very impressive goals.  I'm a lot more impressed with people like James who face great odds (he's put together with pins now!) and accomplish goals than I am with people who find things easy.  Stubbornness levels the playing field: James has climbed more hard shit than most people who are naturally talented. He has more tenacity than anybody I've ever met.

James is inspiring to me. I'm not a talented rock climber by any stretch of the imagination. I actually have to try, and I definitely get scared, and bored, and give up on things.  If I don't pay attention, I put on weight, I get weak, and I have to work hard.  At this point, I'm less interested in what I could do if I were actually talented, and more interested in what I could accomplish if I were more like James. James is rad.

That said, I have worked hard this fall. After 2 days on a route called Cell Block, I think I could send it within a few tries.  This route felt completely impossible to me a few years ago.

I feel stronger than I've ever been before, and more mellow about climbing in general.  I'm hoping to send some stuff before the balance shifts more towards suck, as it inevitably will.  And I hope it stops raining!!!

omg

not only for the cute factor, but wtf is it doing?

I find this very interesting

How impulse control relates to prosperity.  

There is a LOT of information packed into this piece. Of course when I think about impulse control, I think about the people I know, and who is good at it and who is not and how that relates to their life.  But this perspective can be broadened to think about nations and culture, and the relationship between impulse control and wealth.

It circles back to an idea that I've been pondering lately that is inspired by basic behavioral ecology: The decision to do something is also the decision NOT to do something else.  The decision to spend your life climbing is also the decision to not, for example, go to college. Or to not stay in one place and cultivate meaningful relationships. Ultimately my decision to go to graduate school was, in some ways, the decision to not depend on climbing for overall happiness. It is not sustainable for me - the gain in climbing harder doesn't make up for what I would have to give up.

I think it's a decision that most obsessive climbers come to in the end, whether because they are not good enough to make it a profession, or because they don't want to limit their lives to such a narrow focus. I've seen a lot more depression/struggling in people with the former scenario.

By the way, this guy is so so smart. And so productive with his writing and blogging. It's really impressive.

Ugh.

Pineapple express coming our way.

Tilden mushroom hunting with Shannon

Today I went down to Walnut Creek to pick Shannon up so we could look for mushrooms.  First we went to Briones, but we didn't find much.  Just a couple of boletes that were infected with another fungus.

So we decided to go to Tilden, because I know there are mushrooms there.  We found a couple, but nothing like what Drew and I found a few years back.  Here are some photos:

Western Grisette (Amanita pachycolea), below with Shannon to show the size. It's a pretty cool mushroom, in the Amanita genus, which includes the mushrooms that are deadly poisonous - the Death Cap and the Destroying Angel. I went on a mushroom hunt with Sunshine when we lived in Santa Cruz and she found a HUGE Destroying Angel. 

The Western grisette is edible, but we let it be.

 This is a Cauliflower mushroom (Sparassis radicata), well-spotted by Shannon.

Apparently these are cultivated for food in Asia. Here's a quote I lifted from Wikipedia: Sparassis crispa can be very tasty, but should be thoroughly cleaned before use as the folds can contain dirt and other material, as it grows and envelops objects around it such as pine needles. Antonio Carluccio reports that European Sparassis crispa should be picked when creamy white, and once yellow are too indigestible to eat. It is good for drying and reconstituting as it retains its cartilaginous texture and hence is good for soups.

A Sulfur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). This guy is NOT edible.  Here's what wikipedia says: "consuming it can cause vomiting, diarrhea and convulsions." We didn't pick this either.

So that was my day.  Not too many mushrooms this year. There was a hard freeze for a few nights in a row last month, which I think put the kibosh on a good mushroom year.  

Haul of Justice

So Jailhouse season has begun for me, and I'm trying to climb there two days a week.  I started working on a project called Electric Chair, but it sucks and the crux is a big sideways dyno that I can't do, so I gave up. I started working Haul of Justice instead, because I figured that if I'm going to fall of a route, I may as well fall off a quality route.  This one is pretty fun. Hopefully I stick with it.

It's hard.

Someone who was around for part of the Spain-Trip-from-Hell is coming to climb at Jailhouse, and I'm a bit hesitant to spend time with him.  I don't want to dredge up the past, and this guy is a notorious boundary-pusher (putting it generously). Blargh. Maybe I'll get lucky and not see him very much. What's done is done.

I remember last year I was...not spyched...around Christmas time. I don't think I got any gifts for anyone, and sort of hid from the festivities.  This year I'm pretty psyched though, and I have a bunch of gifts planned for people. It's fun!  Last year I made some truffles for my family as a last minute gift.

I have big plans for homemade gifts this year, starting with the salsas and jams I canned late summer. I want to make some cookies, some apple cider gummies (like gumdrops), maybe some biscotti, truffles, doggie treats for the dog owners, and whatever else I think of.  I wandered around Davis and picked some pink peppercorns (the trees are planted ornamentally around town), and I'll make some toffee with them.  I was worried about poisoning people, but I told Emily that they grew around Davis and she made some caramels and already fed them to people, and they aren't dead yet, so I guess they are ok. I'm glad she did some testing for me...I'm a bit conservative when it comes to eating things I gather.

January 11 I turn 31.  Or, as Bjorn and Lisa call it: thirty-WON-derful.  can't. wait.

Arsenic-based life form? Don't get too excited.

Here is a nice piece on the arsenic-based life forms hullaballoo from Slate. I think it's kind of messed up that NASA's press release was:

NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.


Because, really, that's not what happened at all.  If you want to get into the meat of the criticism, see here.

Though often science is not very scientific, at least there is a broad community for peer-review. Even if a paper or a piece of research gets beyond the first gauntlet of getting published, if it's no good, or there are big questions remaining, it will be eviscerated in the science blogosphere, and perhaps a rebuttal will be published in the original journal.

NASA scientists are not commenting.

This is why I don't sleep in

Holy shit I had the weirdest dreams last night. I think it's because I overslept (usually I wake up between 6 and 7, this morning I made it until 8). Also, my housemate and I watched two intense movies last night: The Last King of Scotland and Notes on a Scandal.  So my brain was prepped for weird dreams.  I don't mind weird dreams except for the fact that they seem SO REAL. I'll even have internal conversations with myself in my dreams about how this is probably a dream but it feels real.  Very real conversations with real people...it's intense.  So here are some highlights from last night: my sister (who's been dead for almost 10 years) murdered someone that had something to do with the Catholic church.  The person was a friend of hers who was in the hospital. My parents were trying to deal with it. Simultaneously, my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend was sending me texts of her tits (in my dream she is foreign and has poor command of the English language, perhaps texting tits enabled her to communicate more freely?).  I was super annoyed by this, so I was trying to post them on the internet for the collective embarrassment of all involved, but my cell phone plan had some privacy setting that reset text messages every night so I couldn't retrieve the picture. Yes.  So. Weird.

My point is: sleeping in - not for me.

Grandma, Thanksgiving, desserts

Another Thanksgiving. This is my 30th Thanksgiving.  I've lived through a month of Thanksgivings.  Putting it like that, it doesn't seem like that many...

Since I was in Davis, I figured I'd try to do the double dinner thing.  Which in practice, didn't really work out, since I ate the first one at 3pm and the second was around 5:30. I couldn't eat anymore, so I just watch the second dinner diners eat.  I couldn't even have another glass of wine.  I'd had wine with Emily the day before, and 2 days in a row with wine is too much.

The hit of the party dessert-wise was the pomegranate chocolate meringue tart.  It was also the most labor intensive, because I made the pomegranate curd twice, because the first batch didn't set.  The pate sucre crust recipe was good, as was the spicy ganache (which I doubled) and meringue. It made one 10" tart and three 4" tartlets. I took the tart over to Emily's and the tartlets to Bjorn's.  I have no photos, but they were lovely. I also made a lemon cream tart with a spiced nut crust (sort of like a linzer sable), an amaretto pumpkin pie (which I wouldn't make again), and a chocolate bourbon pecan pie (from the Baked cookbook). I didn't actually taste the lemon tart or the pecan pie.  More and more I don't eat what I make.  I don't know why.  Probably because so much sugar makes me feel sick.  Others seem to enjoy it though, so that keeps me inspired.

I had a conversation with my Grandma on Wednesday.  Every now and again she calls and we chat.  She's 92 now.  I still haven't gone back to the ranch since my grandfather died, which is an endless source of guilt. I don't know why I'm so reluctant to go. It's weird. Sometimes I have this gut reaction that prevents me from doing things that it seems I "should" do, and I need to be dragged into doing them. Grandma understands...she says "there's really nothing here for you."  Which of course makes me feel more guilty.

Anyway, I don't know why but I asked grandma if she was scared of dying, and she said she wasn't.  Then she went into talking about how grandpa died and how she watched the undertakers put him in a body bag, load him into the car, and then watched the car go down the driveway.  She said that's how she wants to go. Of course I'm in tears at that point, but trying to hold my voice together so she doesn't know.  I don't want to depress her by bringing it up. I guess I just want to know that maybe I won't always be afraid of dying myself or having people around me die.  There's little point in fearing the inevitable.

Not one to let an opportunity to depress myself go by, I then asked her if she was happy, and she said "um....I don't really know how to answer that question". I said "well, I mean, are you happy?" And then she started talking about how she got new carpeting in the house, and what else she was planning on doing.  I dropped it.

Dicey winter drive

Driving through the Great Basin was a bit dicey yesterday, but it went ok until I got to Truckee where everything went to shit.  Chain control, tons of traffic, blowing snow, lanes that weren't entirely plowed.  I'm glad I got through because they closed I-80 overnight.

Nevada was beautiful though. Everything was freshly white. I'm not a snow lover, but a fresh dusting of snow with scattered clouds at dawn is something special. So beautiful you could never take it all in, so you just take lame dashboard photos and hope for something decent:

A few days ago I hiked around the Fisher towers. I'd never been there before. I can't believe that Roop aid soloed two of them.  Crazy.

In other news, I'm talking with a guy at CU Boulder about potentially...potentially (that's a double potential..which means I'm not getting my hopes up) doing a post-doc there.  He does interesting research, and Boulder is on the list of places to check out, so it's an option.

For all of the things I think about on my drive, and all of the things I think I'd write about, this is all I've got. When it comes to sitting down and banging it out and getting the words on the blog, most of it doesn't happen.

Utah beer

Right now I'm really happy that Utah beer is only 3.2%. That is all.

Salt Lake is cool. Moab is built on salt.

I'm in Moab now, after spending two nights in SLC with Brad and Katie.  At this point I really like SLC and it's a viable option for a place to live after I finish.  I can't decide if it's the location or because Brad and Katie are so nice and hospitable.  SLC just seems less formal and superficial than Boulder.  All I'm going on is my gut at this point, since I haven't spent very much time in either place. And we all know my gut has led me astray before, so I'm trying to take it with a grain of salt.

At any rate, I really liked the gym there.  Of course I liked the gym in Boulder too. I really just don't know. I'll be looking for jobs in both locations, and then I've also got the post-doc proposals floating around for me to stay in Davis. One thing I can be grateful for is that I can do whatever the hell I want, and I don't need to compromise with anybody.  It's freedom. I relish it.

Other fun things that happened in SLC: I'm all caught up on Weeds (Brad has season 6), and a free CPR class at the BD headquarters (randomly, Brad's parents, brother and sister in law were putting on a course for employees the second night I was in SLC).  The BD HQ makes the federal cubicles look like shit. I won't lie. That's a pretty nice building. It's almost enough to make me stop trying to save the world...or at least a few species that nobody gives a shit about.

Now I am in Moab and it's looking like I might only climb for a day, with Joe et al. These conferences can be pretty fun - especially now that I've gone to several over the years and I know a bunch of people. It's good to catch up and talk about fish and science. I had dinner with one of the Utah division of Wildlife folks who was on my Silver King Creek trip, as well as some navy biologists who I sampled Mohave tui chub with in Zzyzx several years go.

Side story: the internet wasn't working for my computer, so I called Jeff and he taught me how to hack into their system using a bunch of numbers and other random shit and reset their router. It was fucking badass. I couldn't believe it!

The IT guys had set their user name and password as admin. Suckers. Always gotta have a tech guy in reserve. And a tall guy who can reach stuff...and a big guy who can carry stuff.

Tomorrow lots of talks...and I should probably try to finish the talk that I'm giving on Saturday. I've never procrastinated this long before giving a talk. Hopefully it's under control and I don't embarrass myself.

Another side story: Moab is a collapsed salt anticline. It's cool. Salt moves a lot like a liquid under pressure, and will dome up through faults.

I give up (I don't even pretend to be a geologist): here's text cut and pasted from the Utah Geological Survey Website:

"During the Pennsylvanian Period (about 300 million years ago), most of Utah was covered by an ancient sea. The Moab area was located in an enormous depression called the Paradox Basin. As sea levels fluctuated over millions of years, multiple cycles of flooding and evaporating occurred in the basin, leaving thousands of feet of salt behind. The resulting Paradox Formation is 65 to 85 percent salt and is interbedded with layers of gypsum and anhydrite.

These salt beds eventually became buried by other rock layers. Because salt deposits are less dense than overlying rock deposits, they behave buoyantly and rise toward the surface. The salt squeezes upward and intrudes into the overlying rocks through zones of weakness such as fractures and faults. As the salt moves, it bends and penetrates the overlying rock. The intruding “salt bubbles” are called salt diapirs."

Here's more:

"Salt movement beneath the Canyonlands region contributed to the creation of many features peculiar to the region, including collapsed anticlines, grabens, fins, and arches.  The weight of overlying rock layers squeezed the salt into areas of lower pressure, which were linear belts along deep buried faults.  In these areas, the salt thickened and formed linear salt tracts.  Later, horizontal compression in the earth’s crust bulged the salt belts and overlying rocks upward to form anticlines.  The brittle, overlying rocks broke along faults and joints in and parallel to the anticlines’ crests, which enabled water to reach the underlying salt in some anticlines.  As the salt dissolved, the overlying rock layers collapsed hundreds of feet (called collapsed salt anticlines), leaving valleys such as Salt Valley in Arches National Park and Moab Valley.  Other anticlines, such as the Cane Creek anticline, have not collapsed."

Phew. That's enough for now. There will be musings on fish in the future.

Are you a word lover?

I am.  If you are too, then you might like this site. The sound effects are a little annoying, but so many cool words!

Yesterday I went to Gold Wall after a series of partner bail-ures. Ha I just made that up. I got on a route I'd gotten on last year that had felt pretty hard and I felt SO good.  Crazy. I wonder if it's the cross training class, or if I'm just super psyched right now.  I don't know, but I'm going to go with it.

Now I'm headed to Salt Lake City to stay for a night or two before I go to Moab to not climb attend a conference. And raft 10 miles down the Colorado River.

Saturday I went to a bbq and made a pie that was super good. Here is the recipe from the NYTimes. I'd never actually made a pie with a squash that wasn't from a can before (pumpkin) so I'm glad it turned out.  One time Sunshine tried to make a pie from fresh pumpkin and it was SCARY! Frazier's dad tried to make us eat it, but I'm pretty sure that's because he couldn't see anymore at his old age.

I should mention I didn't use Kabocha squash, but Musquee de Provence instead.  You know, for those who care. I also made the ginger butterscotch sauce to go with it and some whipped cream. If you make the sauce, halve the recipe. The pie was gone at the end of the night. I was lucky to get the last piece.

The bbq was at Ron's house in Davis, and all the sac climbers came: Rick, Denise, Shaghig and Jonathan, Larry and Nunley. It was weird to see my climbing community intersect with Davis life, but very cool.

Driving. At least it's through Nevada! I'm going through BATTLE MOUNTAIN!  How cool does that sound?

And this crazy google maps version of bendover Wendover, NV. Psyched!


View Larger Map

Update:

check this out. It's pretty funny. Mostly this is for you Shannon.

Best Day Ever!

Okay I hope it's not the best day ever, because then what would I have to look forward to?

But it's not so bad. My garden is going ape shit, except for the slugs.  I've had some great conversations with friends, I baked some maple-walnut shortbread, I got to show a friend the frogs and the garden (woo!) and now I'm watching snail sex on television.  Wow, it's intense.

Jailhouse on Sunday? I think maybe.  I feel really strong right now. It was cool to climb with Dan and hear from him that I look stronger than he's ever seen me.  We'll see what I can get done during this (I'm sure) brief period of non-suck.  Hopefully I can have some fun with it.

Here are some photos of the garden.  It never gets old:

It's comforting to know that people don't change

I went to Jailhouse for the first time in a while yesterday. I had a pretty good day, considering I hadn't been there in a year.  I did the warmup, went up Whipping Boy, then Electric Chair twice, followed by Soap.  Granted I only did the warmup clean, but shit I don't know the moves on Whipping boy, I was learning electric chair, and I'd never expect to do Soap clean at the end of the day.  All in all it was pretty productive and I was able to maintain psych.

I'd like to start going again. I had a great time with Dan, who is one of the most positive people I know.  He does a way better job of getting me and spinning the negative in a positive light than I do.  For that I'm grateful. Sometimes it can feel pretty lonely out here.

I tend towards nihilism, because all of the time I see douchebags who have good things happen to them, and really good people who have bad things happen to them. I don't believe there's any greater purpose to this disparity, simply chance and luck. So I try to be a "good" person only so I can sleep better at night. And maybe a tiny part of me hopes that it will pay off and good things will happen. Okay maybe a big part.

Some news came my way of a person in my past repeating mistakes.  In a way it's somewhat comforting to know that people don't miraculously change, in another way it's depressing. The best thing to do seems to be to vet people on the front end before you let them get close. Of course this is an unsustainable policy. But it's better than bouncing around like a douchebag and dragging people with you because you don't stop to think about how your actions affect other people. In my experience, and from what I've observed, this is how most people operate; I don't blame them, because it's way easier that way. I'm not sure I'd wish this acute consciousness on my worst enemy.

One of the biggest reasons for all the strife in the world has got to be that people can't understand what it's like to not be themselves.  I'm guilty of this: I tend to imbue others with some of my traits (especially thoughtfulness) and "fill in the blanks" so to speak.  I just assume that people think the way that I think, or need what I need, etc. Then I end up delusional and thinking people are different than how they really are. For better or worse.

Bjorn had a good suggestion: find people who are better to self-delude yourself about.

BLaAaaarrgghhh.

Ugh this weather and the time change are so depressing.

I'm feeling ambivalent about going to Moab early to climb, especially because it's going to be really cold. At the very least I won't drive tomorrow, but Thursday.

In other interesting news, I went to court for the first time ever today.  It was a strange experience. First of all there were a bunch of 'certified student lawyers' standing around outside of the courtroom who were available to chat with.  I ignored them at first but then I sat down and listened to the judge give his spiel ("this is not a trial, you can plead guilty and pay, guilty with an explanation and still pay, or not guilty and schedule at trial") and decided to chat with one of them.  First the lawyer laughed at me and said "wow you got a 175 dollar fine for not getting a free permit to hike? Seems kind of steep. HA HA".

But then he got my fine reduced by half.

The judge called me up and was like "how do you plead" I was like "guilty" and he was like "you don't want to explain?" and I'm thinking "you just told like, 10 people ahead of me that this wasn't a trial and that you didn't want explanations!" but I didn't say anything, I just looked behind me to the prosecutor (who was supposed to say that my fine was going to get reduced, but he wasn't paying attention) and was like "um..." and he was like "oh yeah, the gov't wants to reduce the fine by half." And that was that.

So I texted Ethan and told him that my fine was reduced by half (to $90 from $175) and asked "are you sure your dad never got anything in the mail about a court date?".  Apparently Ethan never got a court notice in the mail, or a letter or anything else like that.  I was thinking to myself "this is strange". So I went back to the courtroom and looked at the list of names and his was there. So now he has a bench warrant out ($500).  John says this is not a big deal, and Ethan has excellent council (his mom), so I'm sure it will all work out.  Plus I got him the number for the judge's clerk and a number for one of the certified student attorneys. Hopefully he doesn't get pissed at me for writing about this....

All that to say that if you aren't proactive, you'll get screwed. And even if you are proactive, you'll still get screwed. Hopefully it will hurt less though.

Stuff

It really doesn't feel like Monday, but here it is.

No send on Bronco on Friday, but I'm close.  First go I fell halfway up the headwall (after making the last clip, which is tough!). Second go I deliberately took after the traverse and then sent to the top.  It was a good effort for not working the route that much. I feel strong right now! Sadly it looks like the weather won't cooperate before I go to Utah, so it will have to wait.  Though I have considered postponing Utah so that I could do Bronco!

Saturday I got a massage - the first one in a long time.  Jesus it hurt (or as my climbing partner would say, "Cheeeees-ohs").

Sunday I went up to Georgetown to Sallie's to look for mushrooms, but it's a bit early yet.  According to my Uncle the Italians say that November 14 is the day for mushrooms.  They didn't give a time, but it doesn't matter since I won't be here.  I always seem to miss peak mushrooms time.  Annoying.  However I did get a photo for all of my trudging through the woods in the rain:

We didn't see much more than this guy.  But they are coming, I know they are!  I've considered how bummed I'd be on rain in California (= no climbing) if I wasn't so psyched on mushrooms...it would be bad.

I brought this to Sallie's house. It was a hit.

Finally, here's a picture of Red with the cone of shame. His expression says it all.

Alright, work work work until I head to Moab on Wednesday.  The only routes I really want to climb are Sacred Cow and Slice and Dice.  Joe wants to do offwidths though, and there are only a couple of days, so who knows if I'll even make it out to those routes. We shall see.

Please let this NOT be an epic

So I'm committed to a climbing project for the first time in a while - and a pretty hard one. Bronco at Star Wall.

I went up there yesterday and worked the headwall. I figured it didn't matter that I climbed Sunday too since I just wanted to work the moves. In addition, I hope that feeling tired yesterday will make it feel a lot easier when I'm rested. I'm planning on going back up there on Friday.

Surprisingly, it was hot as shit yesterday. We actually waited around for an hour or two before beginning to climb. Unfortunately the headwall was still pretty hot, and that's the hard part. I guess what they say is true: star wall is good almost year round. The sun bakes it, even on super cold days.

I can make it up to the headwall at this point. You kind of get a rest...I wish it was a better rest than it is. I can kind of get a stem and turn my hips to rest my arms, but it's strenuous on the core/legs. After that it's a big pull to a semi-decent rest, and then it's on until the top. The hardest move is deadpointing to this shitty crimp, getting my feet up and deadpointing to a "jug". Some people skip the last clip and fire all the way to the top. But it's not over after you get the "jug"!! you still have to do these layback moves that are pretty damned hard when you are torched after doing the whole route. Oof. I SERIOUSLY doubt I'll skip the clip, unless it turns out that I fail at several redpoint attempts.

It's probably good for me since I don't usually pick projects that are this hard. I like to stick to easier grades and do things more quickly. At some point though, you run out of local things that are easy/safe/fun/easy to find partners for, and you have to step it up.

So now I just think about the route for two days (I know!). I have to wait to see how I feel on Friday. I think a first real redpoint attempt is in order. God I hope this doesn't end up being epic. Bronco would be a really good send for me.

Favorite pumpkin cookies

I make several batches of these a year:

Pumpkin cookies (from Moosewood Classics)

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375, line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add pumpkin, vanilla and egg, beat for 1 minute. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice). Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix until flour disappears into the batter. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake 375 for 10-15 minutes.

They are really really good.

Went to Berkeley today and hung out with Brad. We wandered around the Berkeley Hills and then climbed at Ironworks. Poor Red dog got attacked by another dog and had a cone of shame on to prevent him from injuring it further. Poor guy.

Sunshine and Peter stopped by the gym, so I could give her a bunch of salsas and cookies and books. Kind of cool to have my two lives intersect every now and again (academic:athletic)

So that was my Halloween weekend. And getting too drunk at the Ringelmans' party.  eeehhhh....

halloweeeeeeeen!!!

My friends and I have decided that Halloween is now a multi-week holiday. Fine by me.

Here are photos of my lame-ass costume. For me it's enough to put on a dress to look completely different, but i put on a bunch of green makeup so I'm DUH DEE DUH...poison ivy?  if I had zombie makeup I'd go the zombie route, but as it stands I have some green makeup from highschool. So I'm workin' with what I've got. One picture is kind of cute, and the other one is sort of...not.

awesomeness

I am loving this right now:



Florence + the machine.

I love the fact that she is so exuberant, and probably batshit crazy.  Rad.

It's raining, which is not so rad.  I might try to get up to Donner on Sunday to work on Bronco.  I might be close?  Unsure. Jailhouse is in season but I'm "meh" about it.  Might see B-Rad tomorrow, depending on climbing/schedule intersections.  He has become a good friend.

Halloween parties: hmmm...I have this crazy mask, so I might actually attend some parties this year.  Last year I not feeling festive and wanted to avoid people altogether; this year is much much better. On the other hand, I don't want to get wasted if I'm going to try to climb on Sunday.

Oh yeah, Lisa and Bjorn made the most AMAZING dinner last night.  Whenever I go over to their house for dinner it's like a foodie explosion. Lisa is a great cook, Bjorn is a good griller, and I always bring the dessert. This time I brought double apple bread pudding with a pumpkin brioche that I made. It was yum. Lisa made fruits der mer - clams, mussels, scallops and prawns over spaghetti in a saffron broth. It was exquisite.

Psyched out of my dome

It's times like these that I know I'm born to do science.  Maybe I'm not born to do science well, but I'm born to do it nonetheless.  I've been dreading sending some samples in for sequencing because I just KNEW that they would fail.  I've done the PCRs, gels and cleanups several times, which is a number of days of work, before I figured it out. Because I SUCK at labwork.

Anyway, I got some data!  This is so freakin' cool.  Super psyched. Wow.

Great article on science + ESA + water management

This is a fairly short article that explains some of the issues in the delta really well. I like it in part because my lab does a lot of the delta science (especially with the delta smelt and now with some of the San Joaquin chinook runs), and my part time job with the USFWS exposes me to the process of writing recovery plans and biological opinions.

Even if you aren't invested in the delta, it's a pretty cool article. If you're reading this, you probably live in California, and you probably get your water from the delta.

50/50 wet/dry winter

Thanks NOAA...actually it's not their fault that we live in a transitional zone.  Sacramento and central California are in the transition zone between areas predicted to be hotter and drier this winter (southwest) and areas predicted to be wetter and colder (pacific northwest).

Today I went up to Donner and ticked Bucko.  Sort of anticlimactic since I just tried it a couple times Saturday and then did it first go today.  I went up again to try Bronco, made it through the roof and then had some trouble getting on to the head wall.  I lowered and then used Arturo's toprope to work the headwall and did all of the moves.  The cool thing is that I sent Bucko, then did the first half of both routes two more times clean. I guess I have it on lockdown.  The other cool thing is that the last time I climbed at Star Wall I was still pretty sick.  I feel so much better now!  It's awesome.

I hope I can send Bronco before the snow hits.  It's hard to say how quick it will go (if at all). Then again, I've been finishing things pretty quickly lately, so maybe I'm on an upswing?

garden photos

Here are some photos of the garden I took today.  At the end is a photo of Vicken and John eating some habanero jelly that I made. There must be something about the amazing warm, sunny weather we have here.  Stuff grows gangbusters here!

For all you paleo-dieters...

Evidence that the prehistoric diet was more than meat and berries and fish - early humans ground grains into "flours".

brunch!

I'm having a few people over for brunch this morning, mostly so I can make donuts.  Donuts are not the sort of thing you want to make for yourself...

I've been sport climbing outside again, which is fun!  I haven't really climbed that much this summer, so I was pleased to send a new .12b and a new 11d/.12a (which is probably .11c).  Those were both at Mayhem.  I went to Star Wall yesterday and got on Bucko, which I hadn't tried in a couple of years. I think it will go pretty soon. It's a cool route and it shares the start with Bronco, which is a solid .12d.  The goal is to send them both before it gets too cold and wet.  I always follow the crowds and climb in Tahoe over the summer and then move to Sonora in the Fall, but now I'm excited to take advantage of the good temps and the thin crowds.  Star Wall can be such a shit show in the summer...and usually when the days are long I'd rather be in the mountains and not sport climbing.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is on tv right now. Wow is it bad. I think I saw it in the theater in high school or something like that. I saw a lot of bad movies in the theater in high school. Then again, midnight movies were 5 bucks, and we couldn't get into bars, so why not?

Going back to Star Wall was a reminder of how much people talk about climbing. blah blah blah did you hear about this did you see that article in rock and ice did you watch the Reel Rock Tour.  The answer is no.  I don't look at climbing magazines, climbing websites, or climbing movies.  Period. I might look at a link that someone sends me though.

I had dinner with B-Rad a few months ago and I remember him saying "I love rock climbing but I don't like climbers that much."  I can understand that sentiment, though many of my best friends are climbers. It's a funny thing.  I wonder if I just have very extreme reactions to life events...ever since my relationship with Alex bit the dust I've just been done with it.  I don't know how useful it is to be so stubborn, but it works for me, so there it is. Plus I always leave room for changing my mind. Who knows how I'll feel about the climbing media in a week or a year.  I try not to set hard rules for myself, and generally listen to my gut and do what I feel like doing. I'm old enough to realize that I can't force myself to do things (even though that would be a valuable skill!). At some point I'll get pushed to the point where it's what happens.

Ethan sent me a link to Sonnie Trotter's blog (which I was reluctant to open for reasons described above), and apparently Sonnie quite Facebook too.  I don't know Sonnie at all, and the most I've ever thought about him is when Shannon and I have an argument about whether he's hot or not (NOT! then again, I go for interesting-looking people rather than pretty boys, so I'm biased, but then again, attractiveness is completely subjective anyway babble babble babble).

Ethan has been off of FB for a while and I quit in January. It's funny that it's such a "big deal" to quit. I guess whenever you do something that potentially will cut you off from what's going on, and it's something that everyone else is doing, you kind of have to justify it to yourself (especially when it often seems so difficult to really connect with people in life).  Then you make the decision and looking back, it seems like a non-decision. I talked to Renee about quitting FB a few weeks ago and she was like "I don't think I could do it!".  I was thinking "well, it wasn't really a decision when I did it...it just had to happen." Not a big deal in the end. I can't handle that many people and that much chatter anyway...I'm too much of an introvert.

All that to say that I'm having brunch his morning and making donuts. YUM!

I like this

I like this cd that I just got, by the Fleet Foxes.  Here's a couple of songs.

File this under "I get hosed"

So someone broke a window on my car as it was parked in front of my house last night.  Driver's rear.

They only took a pack that had 2 pairs of climbing shoes (1 was a nearly new pair of solutions), my harness, grigri and chalk bag.  Super lame.  People who steal suck. My rack was in my car but they didn't take that (phew).

Anyway, the total cost of replacing the window was about 500 bucks.  Which is my car insurance deductible...per occurrence.  We have no homeowner's insurance that covers property, so the climbing gear is a loss.

Fortunately I have some friends who are helping me out with new gear, but I'm sure I"ll have to pay full price for the shoes and grigri.  Sigh.

Someone in my lab told me today "you don't seem that mad."  I'm like "well, what are you going to do?" I've been broken into before, but not in this car and not at this house.  In Vegas I was climbing with an old boyfriend and they broke my car window and only stole my boyfriend's down coat. That was also "lucky", because the car sat on the side of the highway for hours after the cops came and left a note on the car. We were living out of the car, so it had all of our gear in it.  I had a rental car (which I was living in) in Australia, and someone broke in and stole EVERYTHING.  Except my shoes and underwear. I was climbing in a sport bra, so I didn't even have a shirt on my back...literally.  And I had 1 pair of pants left which split up the butt the next day.  That was grim.  Fortunately my partner had his wallet on him or else we would never have made it back to Sydney. I don't know what we would have done otherwise.  I can't imagine if that happened in a non-English speaking country. I shudder to think.

I know I'm not supposed to leave things in my car, but it's Davis, so I got complacent. I don't know...it's just one more strike against general humanity.  If someone wants to fuck you, they'll fuck you, and there's not much you can do about it. Guess I need to be more vigilant...and get some property insurance.

More religious literacy data breakdown; looking ahead.

Here's a nice breakdown of some more data (by education and income levels) that my favorite science blogger put up today.

I've had a lot of energy lately...so I'm trying to channel it which means less blogging. Sitting and writing or reading is pretty difficult, though I've managed to squeeze out revisions and a final report (which will be my final chapter in my PhD). I think that sticking around most weekends the second half of summer has been a nice change...I'm climbing a bunch in the gym, canning, gardening, writing, pet frogging, baking, cooking, spending time with friends etc. However all that will probably change as the weather cools and Jailhouse and Gold Wall come into season. I'd like to start climbing at Jailhouse again, but I'm not sure if I can handle the company there. Maybe I'll just try to polish off the rest of Gold Wall this season...I'm getting semi-close!

Also, I'm looking for people who are going to be able to go on a massive climbing trip next summer/fall.  Get in touch if you can hit the road for some or all of it.

how much do you know about religion?

The Pew research center has a 15 question poll to test religious literacy. Ironically, atheists/agnostic rank among the highest, along with Jews and Mormons.  I thought I'd score poorly, since I'm of the "I have no freakin' clue and I don't care either" boat about religion, but I got 13/15 (I thought one was a trick question...it wasn't).  They have a nice breakdown of the data as a reward when you are done. It took me about 90 seconds to take the quiz.

Take the quiz.

Stuff...you know.

This is awesome.

I don't think I ever mentioned (on the blog) that I got four golfodulcean poison dart frogs at the reptile fair (they are not reptiles, I know...but tomatoes are fruits, even though they've been legally declared vegetables...so this is the culture we live in).

They are completely adorable.  The downside is that when you get pet dart frogs, pet wingless fruit flies are part of the package. Wingless fruit flies are not completely adorable.

I like to watch the frogs eat.  They are voracious buggers - they eat so many flies! I can stare at them for quite a while and watch them hunt.

I probably shouldn't have gotten them, or maybe I should have gotten fish or something instead. You can watch fish all the time because they are always swimming (some hide, but whatever).  The frogs come out of the moss when they are hungry and wait for me to feed them...then they retreat into little "burrows" when they are full. It's kind of funny - they start hopping all over the place when I take the lid off of their container - I think they've been trained to know when they are going to get fed.

My tui chub report is almost done. I finished up the figures today.  Next up is the major revisions that the authors of a journal returned to me.  Then I'll have 2 chapters done. Tui chubs is just a report, but it's written, and if I get that published then I'm done.  It's weird. I feel like I've had an oddly easy phd experience.  Aside from getting sick and falling apart halfway through, it's been a bit of a breeze.  I've had a ton of free time, plenty of time off, I have a job lined up, possible post-doc research lined up, I'll have at least 3 publications, with potential for several more, I've gotten along great with my advisor and my labmates, and I've never had to worry about funding or teach. Plus I really like my research, and the species and systems I work with.  I suppose it doesn't hurt to have broad research interests, but still - I like what I'm doing.

Now the next chapter is going to start pretty soon.  Still unsure of what I'd like to do next.  Maybe travel? I don't really want to go on a long road trip by myself, but that might be what happens.  Not many other people have the kind of time that I have to take vacations. A lot of the ones that do are dirtbags, douchebags, or married, which doesn't leave a lot left over for me.

garden photos

We planted a little more than half the garden last week, and set up the irrigation system.  Now we need to stay on top of the water situation, fix the irrigation system that we set up (this is a learning process), and plant the rest.  Also we should add wood chips to the path down the middle and think about mulching the rows.  The current plant list is: lettuce, chard, broccoli (2 kinds) cabbage, strawberries, parsley, joi choi, green onions and walla walla onions, carrots...and I'm probably forgetting something.