Friday, November 04, 2005
Policy is done now
At least for a few days. Then we will begin calling and rewriting and conferencing in earnest.
This is my new favorite picture. Peter took it in the Chesapeake Bay, at Fort Monroe. Valerie was sitting on top of the pile of cannonballs, just normally, you know, like the Thinker or something, in other words just like a regular person sitting. But when Peter tried to take a picture of her, she said no and jumped off. So I did this nice gymnastic balancing thing, because other than sitting on the top, it seemed like the only logical thing to do. So since I am logical, that is what I did.
In the Chesapeake Bay we had a crab dinner one night, and we decided to have some of them Tangier style, so instead of just putting them in the pot, throwing a bit of spices on them and steaming them alive, we did something more drastic. We removed the top shell -- the part that looks most like a crab, you know -- and then you could see their hearts beating. Next we ripped off the gills, which are their lungs, and used a knife to take off the mouth part. Then we used a spigot to wash out the guts. Then they were pretty much dead, except that their legs still moved when you sprayed water inside, because it pressed on their nerves and it made them twitch. So if you're weird like me and you know it's already dead anyway, you take a knife and you poke its spine to make the legs twitch. Because that's kind of cool, you know, manipulating the nerves after the animal is dead. Then we sprinkled the spices on the meat, which was now exposed -- that was the point -- and steamed them that way.
We got up at 5:45 this morning and went to get more cormorant pellets. It did not rain this morning, and we started the engine just perfect, and the seaport people put it on the other side of the dock so that we wouldn't have to go under the lines of the Annie, and we collected maybe 80 cormorant pellets, as opposed to four the last time. And we made it in time for policy class, even in time to have cereal first. But I was falling asleep in policy class during our guest lecture, which was bad, bad, bad. I was so tired that I slept for a good 13 minutes of our 15-minute break, and would have slept longer had I not set an alarm for myself. Hmmmm.
It should be a nice weekend.
This is my new favorite picture. Peter took it in the Chesapeake Bay, at Fort Monroe. Valerie was sitting on top of the pile of cannonballs, just normally, you know, like the Thinker or something, in other words just like a regular person sitting. But when Peter tried to take a picture of her, she said no and jumped off. So I did this nice gymnastic balancing thing, because other than sitting on the top, it seemed like the only logical thing to do. So since I am logical, that is what I did.In the Chesapeake Bay we had a crab dinner one night, and we decided to have some of them Tangier style, so instead of just putting them in the pot, throwing a bit of spices on them and steaming them alive, we did something more drastic. We removed the top shell -- the part that looks most like a crab, you know -- and then you could see their hearts beating. Next we ripped off the gills, which are their lungs, and used a knife to take off the mouth part. Then we used a spigot to wash out the guts. Then they were pretty much dead, except that their legs still moved when you sprayed water inside, because it pressed on their nerves and it made them twitch. So if you're weird like me and you know it's already dead anyway, you take a knife and you poke its spine to make the legs twitch. Because that's kind of cool, you know, manipulating the nerves after the animal is dead. Then we sprinkled the spices on the meat, which was now exposed -- that was the point -- and steamed them that way.
We got up at 5:45 this morning and went to get more cormorant pellets. It did not rain this morning, and we started the engine just perfect, and the seaport people put it on the other side of the dock so that we wouldn't have to go under the lines of the Annie, and we collected maybe 80 cormorant pellets, as opposed to four the last time. And we made it in time for policy class, even in time to have cereal first. But I was falling asleep in policy class during our guest lecture, which was bad, bad, bad. I was so tired that I slept for a good 13 minutes of our 15-minute break, and would have slept longer had I not set an alarm for myself. Hmmmm.
It should be a nice weekend.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Gourmet food
Grandma thought we would be eating PB&J all the time. But she was wrong. I told her the last time I had PB&J was when I was at home! Unless you count on toast in the morning, that's true.
Today Valerie and I made spinach-artichoke dip. We put in spinach and chopped artichoke hearts and some dairy ingredients (cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise) and then we spread it in pans and Valerie grated romano cheese over the top and we baked it. Then we had it with Triscuits and sliced baguette. Sliced on the diagonal. Duh.
Hilary made banana bread, although it was more of a house effort since we have been preparing our bananas for banana bread for weeks. They were almost entirely brown before the Chesapeake, so I put them in the refrigerator so we wouldn't get fruit flies, so when we got back they were entirely black, and now it has been almost a week after that. So they were ready to be made into banana bread. We baked it and ate it warm. Mmmmm. But not all of it. Yet. Things like this last very short amounts of time in this house, though. Hilary's two loaves of pumpkin-coconut-cranberry bread lasted under 24 hours. So you see, I am not kidding about the short amounts of time, or the gourmet nature of the food in this house. Three adjectives for the bread, honestly.
And then Hilary brought some over to Katy during office hours, and Katy said that because of that, we all get As. "A is for Albion," she said. Hilary claims that this is a direct quote. In that case, I need not get back to work on my paper, right? Wrong. Back to work it is. I currently have 8.5 pages. It needs to be 15 pages, but not necessarily the draft... right? right? Hmmm, maybe wrong about that, too.
Today Valerie and I made spinach-artichoke dip. We put in spinach and chopped artichoke hearts and some dairy ingredients (cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise) and then we spread it in pans and Valerie grated romano cheese over the top and we baked it. Then we had it with Triscuits and sliced baguette. Sliced on the diagonal. Duh.
Hilary made banana bread, although it was more of a house effort since we have been preparing our bananas for banana bread for weeks. They were almost entirely brown before the Chesapeake, so I put them in the refrigerator so we wouldn't get fruit flies, so when we got back they were entirely black, and now it has been almost a week after that. So they were ready to be made into banana bread. We baked it and ate it warm. Mmmmm. But not all of it. Yet. Things like this last very short amounts of time in this house, though. Hilary's two loaves of pumpkin-coconut-cranberry bread lasted under 24 hours. So you see, I am not kidding about the short amounts of time, or the gourmet nature of the food in this house. Three adjectives for the bread, honestly.
And then Hilary brought some over to Katy during office hours, and Katy said that because of that, we all get As. "A is for Albion," she said. Hilary claims that this is a direct quote. In that case, I need not get back to work on my paper, right? Wrong. Back to work it is. I currently have 8.5 pages. It needs to be 15 pages, but not necessarily the draft... right? right? Hmmm, maybe wrong about that, too.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Chesapeake
Yup, still here. The Chesapeake was good; it was much more low-key than the other trips, because they could not plan it to the nearest minute, so we kind of went around and saw things and ate a lot of snacks. Nothing wrong with that.
I had a nice weekend in Colorado, seeing Karen and Jeff and their kids, and going to Grandma's 90th birthday party. It's good to visit Cooper and Stella every so often so that they will remember who I am. I asked Stella who made the wooden thing with her name on the wall, and she said she didn't know. So you see, I should go more often. They are really cute. Yup.
I ran two miles on a track that we had to break into by climbing over a seven-foot (or so) chain-link fence. The track was really nice, the edges weren't even broken off yet, and the lines were beautiful. I ran two miles slow and then did a mile fast around the inside lane. I ran the first two laps at 7:20 pace and the last one at about 6:10 pace, so I was pretty happy with that. 7:02 for the mile, which is not what I would call impressive, but for not having anyone to race and for being at 6,000 feet of altitude, it was pretty good.
I got "randomly selected" for a full security screening both going to and returning from Colorado. You know, where they make you stand with your feet apart, arms out and palms up and wand you down, pat you everywhere the metal detector detects metal, and swab all the surfaces of your luggage with cloths. Going both directions. Ha ha, "random," sure. If you fly American, look at the bottom-right corner of your boarding pass. If it says SSSS, that means you get a Super Special Security Screening. So allow extra time.
I had to write a four-page English paper for today. That was not very much fun. I don't like writing English papers. It was about this poem. I would rather write our 15-page policy paper than a four-page English paper. And it's due on Friday morning, so I had better do just that.
We had boat handling today, and Julie and I took out a JY-15. The average wind was 16 knots with gusts up to 20, so there was some pretty steady wind. There were not whitecaps, but it was close. I was in the bow doing the jib, so I got quite wet. We went pretty fast, and the boat made that humming noise. We had to hike out a bit. When we were docking, the teacher guy did that thing where they just tell you what to do and not what the idea of why you are doing it is, so when we barely missed the dock and circled around again, he said "push the tiller that way" and Julie did, but apparently it was not "that" way and we had no idea of what his plan was, so the mast almost hit the cables holding the Conrad in place. Honestly, if you want someone to do something, you should say "turn the boat around that way and come in again, point your bow into the wind," that sort of thing. Today was the last day for the JYs; I don't know why, but after this since it is getting to be winter we will only be sailing Dyer Dhows.
Now, time for policy.
I had a nice weekend in Colorado, seeing Karen and Jeff and their kids, and going to Grandma's 90th birthday party. It's good to visit Cooper and Stella every so often so that they will remember who I am. I asked Stella who made the wooden thing with her name on the wall, and she said she didn't know. So you see, I should go more often. They are really cute. Yup.
I ran two miles on a track that we had to break into by climbing over a seven-foot (or so) chain-link fence. The track was really nice, the edges weren't even broken off yet, and the lines were beautiful. I ran two miles slow and then did a mile fast around the inside lane. I ran the first two laps at 7:20 pace and the last one at about 6:10 pace, so I was pretty happy with that. 7:02 for the mile, which is not what I would call impressive, but for not having anyone to race and for being at 6,000 feet of altitude, it was pretty good.
I got "randomly selected" for a full security screening both going to and returning from Colorado. You know, where they make you stand with your feet apart, arms out and palms up and wand you down, pat you everywhere the metal detector detects metal, and swab all the surfaces of your luggage with cloths. Going both directions. Ha ha, "random," sure. If you fly American, look at the bottom-right corner of your boarding pass. If it says SSSS, that means you get a Super Special Security Screening. So allow extra time.
I had to write a four-page English paper for today. That was not very much fun. I don't like writing English papers. It was about this poem. I would rather write our 15-page policy paper than a four-page English paper. And it's due on Friday morning, so I had better do just that.
We had boat handling today, and Julie and I took out a JY-15. The average wind was 16 knots with gusts up to 20, so there was some pretty steady wind. There were not whitecaps, but it was close. I was in the bow doing the jib, so I got quite wet. We went pretty fast, and the boat made that humming noise. We had to hike out a bit. When we were docking, the teacher guy did that thing where they just tell you what to do and not what the idea of why you are doing it is, so when we barely missed the dock and circled around again, he said "push the tiller that way" and Julie did, but apparently it was not "that" way and we had no idea of what his plan was, so the mast almost hit the cables holding the Conrad in place. Honestly, if you want someone to do something, you should say "turn the boat around that way and come in again, point your bow into the wind," that sort of thing. Today was the last day for the JYs; I don't know why, but after this since it is getting to be winter we will only be sailing Dyer Dhows.
Now, time for policy.
