Towards the beginning of last school year, I went to a lecture being given by a potential new hire as a geology professor, as did one of my professors. We were supposed to rate how they did, to help the hiring committee to make their choice ( Read more... )

I just looked at the profile pictures of people in my high school class. All but a few of them look like our parents. It isn't just that they look older, there's no controlling that. Bald and grey and fat happens. I'm talking about the *way* they look. When did they become respectable? Even worse, when did they decide they wanted to be respectable ( Read more... )

I don't get Obama winning the peace prize - yet ( Read more... )

I'm in the Forest Fungi program this fall, which is an upper-division science program. One of the prerequisites "proficiency in basic mathematics". The other day we had to calibrate the scale in the eyepiece (optical micrometer)to a special scale on a slide (stage micrometer) using the different magnifications so that we use the optical micrometer ( Read more... )

Back to school this morning. 9 a.m. classes suck.

Roasted homegrown garlic ( Read more... )

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx08_brady/9_16_09_METRO.htmlRead more... )

There is nothing quite as wonderful as the way the house smells on stock making days. I saved up a few quarts of cooking water from lengua, 10 pounds of bones from a pasture raised steer, and a bunch of meat scraps. All the veggies are from my own garden. It smells really, really good right now.

Yesterday's high was 109.2! One of the reasons that I moved to western Washington was so I wouldn't have to live in temperatures like this. All over western WA and OR records were broken for the hottest day on record ( Read more... )

Everything I've tried making from the pastured pork that I got at the farmer's market has just been incredible. I simply cannot describe the difference in flavor. It may cost 3 times as much, but it is more than 3 times as good ( Read more... )